Fencing World Cup: how many Azzuri at the start

Fencing: the World Cup kicks off

This weekend will see the start of the 2022/2023 season of the Absolute World Cup for Italian fencing, with 60 Azzurri on the piste. As many as five of the six Olympic specialties (with the exception of women’s foil, which will start in December) will make their debut next weekend between November 10 and 13, each with individual and team competitions: sabre and sabre fencers will be on stage in Algiers, in Tallinn it will be the turn of the epee fencers while the epee fencers will make their debut in Bern, and in Bonn the foil fencers will be involved.

Very rich menu, then, for the first appointment of the season that will lead, from April next year, to the start of the Olympic Qualification for the Paris 2024 Games and towards the World Championships in Milan scheduled for July 2023. Very important goals for the Italian National Teams, which approach the new adventure in the World Cup circuit strong from the excellent results arrived last summer first in the record-breaking European Championships in Antalya and then in the World Championships in Cairo.

THE SNAIL.
The international weekend will be opened by saber in Algiers, where it will start already on Thursday (Nov. 10) with the preliminary stages of the individual competitions for women and men. CT Nicola Zanotti in the women’s group has summoned Michela Battiston, Martina Criscio, Alessia Di Carlo, Rebecca Gargano, Rossella Gregorio, Chiara Mormile, Eloisa Passaro and Claudia Rotili; they will be joined – authorized – by Benedetta Baldini, Sofia Ciaraglia, Benedetta Fusetti and Vally Giovannelli. On the men’s side, on the other hand, highly anticipated is the return of Enrico Berrè, back from an injury that forced him to the pits since last March, who returned among the chosen ones along with Dario Cavaliere, Luca Curatoli, Michele Gallo, Matteo Neri, Riccardo Nuccio, Giovanni Repetti, Luigi Samele and Pietro Torre. The nine will be joined – cleared to participate – by Luca Fioretto, Gabriele Foschini and Giacomo Mignuzzi.

In Algeria, the highlights of the individual competitions are scheduled for Friday 11 for women and Saturday 12 for men. Sunday, November 13 will then be the day of the team competitions. For the women’s Italy team, Rossella Gregorio, Martina Criscio, Eloisa Passaro and Chiara Mormile (new entry compared to the lineup that won European silver in Turkey) have been named in the quartet. The men’s team, on the other hand, will start again with Luigi Samele, Luca Curatoli, Pietro Torre and Michele Gallo, who won world bronze in July in Egypt. The technical staff of CT Nicola Zanotti, for this first seasonal round of the Absolute Sabre World Cup, will consist of masters Andrea Aquili, Benedetto Buenza, Leonardo Caserta and Alessandro Di Agostino. Also at the side of the Italian national team in Algiers will be doctor Sofia Calaciura and physiotherapist Andrea Giannattasio.

SWORD.
The epee of coach Dario Chiadò’s team will be divided between Tallinn and Bern: women in Estonia and men in Switzerland, with the same program of competitions that includes preliminaries on Friday 11, individual main draw on Saturday 12 and team trials on Sunday 13. The Italian women’s athletes summoned for the trip to Estonia are Rossella Fiamingo, Federica Isola, Roberta Marzani, Mara Navarria, Giulia Rizzi and Alberta Santuccio, who will be joined – authorized to participate – by Alessandra Bozza, Beatrice Cagnin, Alice Clerici, Eleonora De Marchi, Nicol Foietta and Vittoria Siletti. In the Sunday team event, the reigning European and World runner-up team composed of Rossella Fiamingo, Federica Isola, Mara Navarria and Alberta Santuccio is confirmed. With the female swordsmen in Tallinn will be CT Dario Chiadò, masters Roberto Cirillo and Daniele Pantoni and physiotherapist Veronica Balzano. On the men’s side, however, on the Swiss pavements it will be the turn of selected epeeists Gabriele Cimini, Valerio Cuomo, Davide Di Veroli, Enrico Garozzo, Andrea Santarelli and Federico Vismara. They will be joined by the authorized Gianpaolo Buzzacchino, Daniel De Mola, Luca Diliberto, Simone Mencarelli, Giacomo Paolini and Andrea Vallosio. Also for the boys, ahead of Sunday’s “team event,” the lineup that won a continental gold and a world silver between June and July, with Andrea Santarelli, Davide Di Veroli, Federico Vismara and Gabriele Cimini, will be reproposed. The swordsmen in Bern will be led by masters Andrea Candiani, Enrico Di Ciolo and Alfredo Rota, with them also physiotherapist Benedetto Coraci.

THE FENCING
Last but not least, the debut in Bonn of the men’s foil. Also for the foilists in Germany Friday 11 will be a day of preliminaries, Saturday 12 the highlight of the individual competition and Sunday 13 the team competition. For the season debut in the World Cup, Weapons Manager Stefano Cerioni has summoned Giorgio Avola, Guillaume Bianchi, Davide Filippi, Alessio Foconi, Daniele Garozzo, Edoardo Luperi, Filippo Macchi and Tommaso Marini, holder of the World Cup won in the last edition, who will be joined – authorized – by Alessio Di Tommaso, Francesco Ingargiola, Giulio Lombardi and Tommaso Martini. For the team event, Italy’s men’s foil will start again with the reigning world and European champion quartet composed of Daniele Garozzo, Tommaso Marini, Alessio Foconi and Guillaume Bianchi. Also accompanying the Italian foil fencers in Bonn with CT Stefano Cerioni are masters Eugenio Migliore and Filippo Romagnoli and physiotherapist Marco Taurino.