Fencing world championships, double gold for Italy
World Fencing Championships, results
Another historic, unforgettable day for Italian fencing at the Milan 2023 World Championships. Saturday’s Mi.Co. brings Italy two golds, with the women’s foil and men’s epee teams graduating world champions, and also the arithmetic victory in the Medal Standings for Nations with a day in advance. Wonderful the Dream Team of women foil fencers that repeated the title they won a year ago in Cairo, and making history is the victory for Italy’s epeeists, a team that conquers the top step of the podium 30 years after their success in Essen.
A great feat for CT Dario Chiadò’s epee quartet: Gabriele Cimini, Davide Di Veroli, Andrea Santarelli and Federico Vismara who beat France, which had held the title since 2019. Heart-stopping and memorable as well was the triumph of the women’s foil quartet of CT Stefano Cerioni and composed of Arianna Errigo, Martina Favaretto, Francesca Palumbo and Alice Volpi. An incredible domination in the bedlam of MiCo.
With the two medals won today, the Italian expedition flies in double digits climbing to 10 podiums, -1 from the record set in the editions of Cairo 1949 and Catania 2011, the last rainbow kermesse hosted in our country.
Italy’s men’s epee was perfect. The quartet composed of Gabriele Cimini, Davide Di Veroli, Andrea Santarelli and Federico Vismara thus brought the men’s epee team World Championships back to Italy three decades after Stefano Pantano, Angelo Mazzoni, Maurizio Randazzo, Paolo Milanoli and Sandro Cuomo. Their day began in the quarterfinals CT Dario Chiadò’s team prevailed with a score of 38-36 against the Czech Republic boosted by the crowd present at Mi.Co who made the Italian team feel their warmth. The Italian quartet then clinched the certainty of the medal in the semifinal against Venezuela by stretching in the last four fractions and winning 35-23 earning the “pass” for the match valid for gold. On the platform of the MiCo final the Italian boys, pushed by an incredible audience, stretched since the fourth match and preserved in the final the lead closing the match with the score of 45-32 exploding with joy on the platform for this great feat.
The Italian women’s foil quartet composed of individual World Champion Alice Volpi, silver medalist Arianna Errigo, bronze medalist Martina Favaretto and Francesca Palumbo was confirmed on the top step of the podium for the second consecutive year after the Cairo 2022 laurel. CT Stefano Cerioni’s girls started the day with a 45-23 success against Germany. Italy in the semifinals then managed the advantage gained from the first hits against Japan, closing with a score of 45-30. The final saw the Azzurri beat France after a highly emotional match. Italy had pulled ahead in the first fractions, the transalpines then recovered until the eighth fraction where Alice Volpi again widened the gap on her opponents. In the last fraction Francesca Palumbo managed the time at her best and scored the five hits that sealed the success 45-39 giving herself the second consecutive gold after the one in Cairo 2022.
