The first half of the World Fencing Championship in Budapest ended for the Russian team with a victory in the medal standings. In the individual tournaments, domestic athletes won one gold, two silver and one bronze, sharing the first place with the Italians in the total number of medals.
But after that, for all the participants of the world championship, the most crucial part began - the drawing of awards in team tournaments, the results of which are of great importance in the selection for the Olympic Games next year. It is at the World Cup that the most points are played out in the world rankings, according to which participants of competitions in Tokyo will be determined next spring.
Before the championship in Budapest, Russians in all types of weapons occupied good positions in the ranking, but they needed to be supported by a successful performance in the team. The first to come out to fight for the medals and points were the girls-swordsmen and the men-saber-players - representatives of the only disciplines in which none of the Russians got into the prize-four.
The swordwomen, led by Lyubov Shutova, who often led the team this season, started the tournament path with a convincing victory over the Iranian team - the opponents sometimes did not even have two shots per match and eventually scored less than half of the possible points.
But since the 1/8 final Russian women have not been easy in any match, even in the meeting with the Japanese, who have only two athletes in the main draw of their personal tournament. Up until the seventh round, the total score was equal and was only 26:26. Still, Violetta Khrapina was able to put two more shots on it, after which Violetta Kolobova took up the case. For three minutes, she scored the necessary 14 points to celebrate early victory.
To challenge the ticket to the semifinals had to meet with Estonians, who also have a pronounced leader Julia Belyaev, able alone to decide the course of any match. But this time the world champion didn’t do anything, and her teammates didn’t take the initiative. Tatyana Andryushina in the last third widened the gap to ten points, and Kolobova again conducted an intense duel to finish the meeting before the expiration of the allotted time.
The meeting with Ukraine turned out to be the most intense. For five mini-fights, Russians gathered bit by bit seven-point separation, which in the sword does not mean absolutely nothing. The Ukrainians did everything possible to reduce it as much as possible, and as a result, the ticket to the final was contested between Kolobova and the bronze medalist of the personal tournament Elena Krivitskaya. The partners left the Russian woman only one injection of the stock. Fortunately, in her duel Kolobova won, and the Russian team for the first time in five years was in the final of the world championships.
It was necessary to fight for gold in fights with Chinese women headed by vice-champion Lin Sheng. At first, the match turned out well for the Russians, and in the first two rounds they earned a slight advantage. However, the factor of Lin Sheng played a role - although in the battle with Lyubov Shutova she immediately aggravated her injury, the Chinese woman was able to win the duel with a score of 3: 0. The partners were inspired by this, and continued to increase the gap. Even Kolobova failed to oppose anything to Lin Sheng in her second fight.
When the leader of the Russian national team returned to the track, she had to play five shots from Zhu Minye. Kolobova fearlessly embarked on her mission and was able to reduce the bill. However, there was almost no time left to continue the fight. The Russian has decided not to rush to the attack in the last seconds, but to translate the match to priority. In the event of a mutual action, her team won gold - in fencing with swords, this is the most desirable scenario of the duel. But Zhu Minya managed to catch Kolobova off-guard, and she did not retaliate. As a result, the Russian team became the silver medalist in women's fencing with epee.
The saber players, on the whole, were left without medals in their team tournament. The first two rounds they passed in the same breath, giving the Mexicans and the Japanese a total of only 47 points. The Russians completed the minimum task of getting into the first eight, but it was impossible to build on success without Kamil Ibragimov.
The Russians finished the quarterfinal match against the strong German team. Konstantin Lokhankov failed his first fight, losing it with a score of 1: 8 to Benedict Wagner, but replacing him Alexey Yakimenko, who returned to the national team after a three-year break, did not make a single blow in a duel with Matiash Sabo. European champion Veniamin Reshetnikov in each match tried to reduce the backlog, but by the final round it was too great. The final score was 45:43 in favor of Germany.
In order not to fail the tournament, the Russians had to take at least fifth place in the consolation tournament. Victories over Romania and Iran allowed to score the maximum points available in such a situation in their rating. But still, in the next season it will not be easy for saber players to prove their right to become one of the eight participants in the Tokyo Olympics. To do this, it will be necessary to perform brilliantly at the World Cup.