Aron Szilagyi (HUN) took the gold at the Athens Men’s Sabre world cup this weekend, defeating Bolande Apithy (FRA) in the semi-finals and then walking off with the final win after Nicolas Limbach (GER) withdrew from the event.
In his semi-final match with Dumitrescu, Limbach was hit in the knee and injured his leg. According to reports from the floor, Limbach “finished off Dumi fencing on one leg” with a 15-9 vicotry, but then withdrew from the tournament. Limbach did not fence in the team event the following day, but was seen walking around the venue. He is expected to fence at the world cup in Madrid next month.
The top US finish for the day was from Daryl Homer, who placed 31st.
1 HUN Szilagyi, Aron
2 GER Limbach, Nicolas
3 FRA Apithy, Bolande
3 ROU Dumitrescu, Rares
5 RUS Yakimenko, Alexey
6 ITA Montano, Aldo
7 ITA Tarantino, Luigi
8 GER Huebers, Richard
31 USA Homer, Daryl
52 USA Morehouse, Tim
61 USA Igoe, Ben
62 USA Spear, Jeff
64 USA Williams, James
Italy Dominates Team Event
Italy dominated Russia through the second half of their match and win the Athens Men’s Sabre world cup team event 45-36. Early in the gold medal bout, Russia took the 5-2 lead and kept just ahead of Italy until Diego Occhiuzzi used a 6-3 bout over Alexey Yakimenko to put the Italian team up 25-23. The Italians never looked back, outscoring Russia 20-13 over the last 4 bouts to secure the win.
France won bronze with a 45-32 victory over Romania.
The United States placed ahead of regional rival Canada by taking 8th place. The US team of James Williams, Tim Morehouse, and Ben Igoe stayed ahead of Hungary (Szilagy, Lontay, Desci, Iliasz) throughout the match which the US won 45-40.
In the round of 8 the US faced Italy and lost 45-34. In the placement rounds, Jeff Spear replaced Ben Igoe for the US team. Against Germany, the US fell 45-26 and then Belarus defeated the US 45-38 to give the US an 8th place finish.
Canada lost their top-16 match to Belarus 43-45, putting them in the bracket behind the US for Olympic qualification.
The result drops the US to 9th in the world and gives them only a 2 point lead over Canada. The Canadian team earned 24 points with their 10th place win and the US earned 26 with 8th place.
The next team event will be held in Madrid, Spain on May 15th.
Acropolis Cup – Men’s Team Sabre Results
1 Italy
2 Russia
3 France
4 Romania
5 Korea
6 Germany
7 Belarus
8 United States
9 China
10 Canada
