Romania and Italy sit at the top of the European zone in Women’s Epee and Men’s Sabre for team selection for the 2012 Olympics following gold medal performances to conclude the 2011 European Championships.
Women’s Team Epee
The Romanian Women’s epee team cruised to victory over Russia to take the 2011 European Championship title in great style. Romania took a small lead early and held on to the lead for several matches. The referee ended 3 bouts early for non-combativity which placed more pressure on team Russia. This played into the hands of the Romanians as they stormed ahead in the final two bouts to win 45-31. Alexandru, Branza, Iordachioiu and Mariou all contributed to the 45-31 victory over the Russian team of Kolobova, Logounova, Shutova and Sivkova.
In the Bronze medal match the French team came from behind to earn a win against an Estonian team which was ahead for most of the match. France won 42-41 in the most sensational comeback of the Championships as Flessel-Colovic swapped from a pistol grip to French grip so that she could pommel. She then went on to dominate Embrich of Estonia winning 42-41 in the priority minute.
Men’s Team Sabre
Italy led the Men’s Sabre match from the start as Montano opened 5-0 against Germany’s Hartung. Occuzzi and Tarantino continued to widen Italy’s margin and by the 7th bout Italy held a 10 touch lead. Hartung attempted a late rally for Germany and managed to close the gap to 7 but the gap was too great for Limbach to overcome. Montano closed out the match against Limbach and Germany had to settle for silver.
Italy had no problem advancing to the gold medal match as they defeated Hungary 45-38 and Romania 45-29. Germany, however, had to pull off upsets to get to the gold medal bout, defeating Belarus 45-41. Most in attendance expected Russia to defeat Germany, but Germany pulled off the upset in dramitic fashion by thrashing Russia by 10 points: 45-35. Russia came back with a vengance in the bronze medal bout with a 45-36 win over Romania.
This win adds another title to what has already been a successful Championships for the Italians. They top the final medal table with six gold medal, two silver medals and two bronze medals.
