Bardenet defeated Italy’s Davide Di Veroli in the final round of the men’s individual epee event, 15-7. In the semi-finals, Di Veroli beat Japan’s Koki Kano in a close match, 9-8, while Bardenet advanced to the finals after overcoming Russia’s Georgiy Bruev, 15-11.

In the men’s team epee event, Russia took gold over Hungary in the final round, 35-30. Hungary beat Poland in the semi-final round, 41-32, while Russia edged-out Italy by a touch, 45-44. The bronze medal went to Italy, winning against Poland, 45-31.

The top-eight individual finalists in the Heidenheimer Pokal World Cup include Alexandre Bardenet (FRA, gold), Davide Di Veroli (ITA, silver), Georgiy Bruev (RUS, bronze), Koki Kano (JPN, bronze), Ido Harper (ISR), Gabriele Cimini (ITA), Jacob Hoyle (USA) and David Nagy (HUN).

Top-eight winners for the men’s team epee event include Russia (gold), Hungary (silver), Italy (bronze), Poland, Korea, USA, Israel and Switzerland.

Complete and official results for the event may be found here on the FIE web site.
 

The theme of the 2018 Congress is “Fencing is our Future”. FIE President Alisher Usmanov said, “We have many achievements to be proud of. We have ensured that all 12 fencing disciplines will be part of the Olympic program. I consider it to be one of the most important points in the history of fencing. The organization of our major tournaments has significantly improved. We are in constant search of new ways of promoting our sport and have made great progress in this respect: testing and introducing state-of-the-art technology; improving the quality and increasing the number of television broadcasts of our competitions, and millions of people all over the world can now watch fencing.”

At this year’s Congress, the FIE ratified one new federation as a member, bringing the total number to 153. The newest nation member of the FIE world fencing family is the federation of American Samoa.

World Championship Hosts. As part of its annual Congress proceedings, several countries bid to host FIE world championship events. At this year’s Congress, the following countries have been approved for the 2021 championships:

• Cairo, Egypt has been voted to host the Junior and Cadet Fencing World Championships
• Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA has been voted to host the Veteran Fencing World Championships

World Rankings. Each team and individual winner for the top-level world junior and senior rankings in epee, foil and sabre as well as overall nations are awarded at the Congress. This year’s recipients of awards include the following:

• Epee
  • Senior Team: USA (women), Korea (men)
  • Senior Individual: Mara Navarria (ITA), Yannick Borel (FRA)
  • Junior Team: Italy (women), Hungary (men)
  • Junior Individual: Federica Isola (ITA), Jakub Jurka (CZE)
• Foil
  • Senior Team: Italy (women), USA (men)
  • Senior Individual: Inna Deriglazova (RUS), Alessio Foconi (ITA)
  • Junior Team: USA (women), France (men)
  • Junior Individual: Martina Favaretto (ITA), Tommaso Marini (ITA)
• Sabre
  • Senior Team: France (women), Korea (men)
  • Senior Individual: Olga Kharlan (UKR), Eli Dershwitz (USA)
  • Junior Team: Russia (women), Italy (men)
  • Junior Individual: Liza Pusztai (HUN), Konstantin Lokhanov (RUS)
• Nations Grand Prix
  • Seniors: Italy
  • Juniors: Italy

Fair Play Award. Based on the proposal of the FIE Fair Play Council, the FIE Executive Committee awards the Fair Play trophy to one or several individuals in world fencing who exhibited a significant act of fair play during the year. For 2018, the award was given to Christian Bauer (FRA), Marco Fichera (ITA) and Katharine Holmes (USA).

The list of decisions of the 2018 FIE Annual Congress will be made available on the FIE Web site.
 

Algiers Women’s Foil World Cup. Italy’s Olympic gold medallist and world champion Elisa Di Francisca scored her latest win in the Algiers women’s individual foil world cup, defeating Japan’s Sera Azuma in the final match, 15-11. The win represents a comeback victory for Di Francisca, following a break from competition after winning a silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and then becoming a mother. Di Francisca beat her teammate, Martina Batini, in the semi-final, 15-6, while Azuma overcame top-ranked Russian Olympic gold medallist and two-time world champion Inna Deriglazova, 15-12. Of note, Batini defeated current world champion Italian Alice Volpi in the quarter-finals, 15-11.

In the women’s team foil event, France edged-out Russia in the final round, 37-36. Russia beat Hungary in the semi-final, 45-26, and France overcame Italy, 45-39. The bronze medal went to Italy over Hungary, 43-36. Both events took place at the Algiers Harcha Hassan Arena.

Berne Men’s Epee World Cup. Japan’s Kazuyasu Minobe won the individual world cup gold medal in men’s epee in Berne, defeating the Netherlands’ Bas Verwijlen in the final round by priority, 9-9. Earlier this year, after winning his second world cup gold medal in Heidenheim, Germany, Minobe said, “I am aiming at an unexpected level of achievement for the future”, which was clear in his win today. Verwijlen overtook Kazakhstan’s Dmitriy Alexanin in the semi-final, 15-10, and Minobe beat Italy’s Federico Vismara, 15-11. Notably, Verwijlen beat Korean Olympic gold medallist Sangyoung Park, 15-9, in the round of 16.

In the men’s epee team event, Russia took gold in the final over Italy, 31-27. Italy overcame Korea in the semi-final round, 45-31, while Russia defeated Hungary, 45-29. Korea won the bronze medal match against Hungary, 36-28. The events took place at Berne’s Sporthalle Wankdorf.

Final Rankings. The top-eight finalists in the Algiers Women’s Foil World Cup included Elisa Di Francisca (ITA, gold), Sera Azuma (JPN, silver), Martina Batini (ITA, bronze), Inna Deriglazova (RUS, bronze), Alice Volpi (ITA), Anastasia Ivanova (RUS), Larisa Korobeynikova (RUS) and Martina Favaretto (ITA).

The top-eight women’s team foil rankings include France (gold), Russia (silver), Italy (bronze), Hungary, Germany, Japan, USA and Korea.

The top-eight finalists in the Berne Men’s Epee World Cup include Kazuyasu Minobe (JPN, gold), Bas Verwijlen (NED, silver), Dmitriy Alexanin (KAZ, bronze), Federico Vismara (ITA, bronze), Marco Fichera (ITA), Alex Fava (FRA), Lukas Bellmann (GER) and Patrick Jorgensen (DEN).

The top-eight men’s team epee rankings include Russia (gold), Italy (silver), Korea (bronze), Hungary, Switzerland, France, USA and Ukraine.

Official results are available here for the women’s foil and here for the men’s epee events, on the FIE Web site.
 

The individual men’s sabre gold medal went to Korea’s Hansol Ha, who beat Italy’s Luigi Samele in the final, 15-9. Both finallists fenced their respective teammates in the semi-final round, with Samele defeating Enrico Berre’, 15-13, and Ha overtaking two-time Grand Prix winner Sanguk Oh, 15-10.

In the men’s team sabre event, Korea overcame Russia in the final match, 45-31. The Russian team beat Italy in a close semi-final match, 45-43, while Korea won against Germany, 45-40. Germany narrowly defeated Italy for the bronze medal, 45-44.

The top-eight individual men’s sabre ranking includes Hansol Ha (KOR, gold), Luigi Samele (ITA, silver), Enrico Berre’ (ITA, bronze), Sanguk Oh (KOR, bronze), Bolade Apithy (FRA), Sandro Bazadze (FIE), Tiberiu Dolniceanu (ROU) and Konstantin Lokhanov (RUS).

The top-eight men’s sabre teams include Korea (gold), Russia (silver), Germany (bronze), Italy, Hungary, Romania, Iran and FIE.

Official results are available here, on the FIE Web site.