The foilist from Jesi, Italy, beat the American Erinn Smart (14-3), the Russians Viktoria Nikichina (15-10) and Olga Lobyntseva (15-4), the French Adeline Wuilleme (15-9), the Polish Malgorzata Wojtkowiak (15-8), and in the final for gold the other Russian Svetlana Boiko (4-1).
In the team competition the following day the Italian WF team with Valentina Vezzali, Margherita Granbassi, Ilaria Salvatori, and Benedetta Durando (without Giovanna Trillini victim of an allergy attack) had to accept second place losing 33 – 43 in the final against Poland’s second victory of 2008 after Jéju. Italy had previously beaten Chile, China (27-17), and Russia (29-16).
This was the fifth team event of this season for the Italian WF team and it was their second best result after the victory in Tokyo in May. In their matches against Poland they tied (1-1) with Poland taking their revenge this time for the loss at the Grand Prix in Danzig. A bitter comment by CT Andrea Magro after the competition, "We fenced well, but for the final when we got somehow lost. We paid for a hesitant start without being able to reach a certain continuity in the action. A real pity."
The next event for WF is for Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 in Las Vegas, the last competition before the Italian championships (June 28-29) in Jesi, and the European championships in Kiev, (July 4-11).
