Thirst for gold
On Thursday, July 18, in Hungary at the World Fencing Championships, two sets of awards were played out in team competitions. For the victory, male swordsmen and female rapiristas had to fight. At the same time, of course, the Russian fans enjoyed the most interest among the Russian fans, because the Russian team approached him with the rank of the current European champions.
Just a month ago, Inna Deriglazova together with her friends left no chances to the strongest Old World swordsmen and won the continental gold. They were going to repeat this success at the World Cup, especially last year Russian rapirist women for the first time since 2010 were left without medals.
In Budapest, the national team was going to not only return to the podium, but also take first place. And the leader of the four Deriglazova demonstrated the seriousness of these intentions in the individual championship, which she won brilliantly.
Russians began their performance in the team championship the day before. In the 1/8 finals, they were stronger than the Spaniards - 45:37.
Already on Monday, July 22, Koreans were defeated in a stubborn and ineffective match, which a year ago did not allow the national team to the semifinals of the planet championship in Wuxi - 33:25.
This time in the semifinals, Russia met with the current world champions from the United States and also celebrated a more than confident victory.
Incredible finale
Thus, for the gold medals Deriglazova and the company had to fight with the Italians, who last year lost to American women in the World Cup final, but the year before last were the first.
And in 2016, Russia and Italy have already met in the finals of the team tournament rapiristok, and the national team took over - 45:39.
No less interesting was the rivalry between the leaders of the teams - Deriglazova and Eliza Di Franchiski. At the current championship they have already met each other in the semifinals of the individual tournament, and the Russian woman was stronger - 15:13. Thus, Inna took revenge from Eliza for defeat in the final of the European Championship - 8:15.
However, she began her journey in Deriglazov’s decisive confrontation with a duel with the 2018 world champion in the individual tournament Alice Volpi. A neat fight between them ended in a draw - 2: 2. Following Di Francesca literally one shot was stronger than Adeline Zagidullina.
But the third Russian woman Anastasia Ivanova, the first fight was a success. In the course of the fight with Ariana Errigo, she led in four shots, but in the end she was satisfied with the advantage in two and led the Russian national team forward - 11:10.
The second series of fights, on the contrary, began for the Russian four with Zagidullina’s major defeat against Volpi - 1: 5. But Deriglazova didn’t leave Errigo a chance and led Russia forward again - 29:28. And Ivanova again managed to consolidate the success, and she was stronger than Di Franchiska.
Before the final series of fights, the Russian rapirist were leading in a score of two points - 25:23. Moreover, Zagidullina confidently led a duel with Errigo, but then missed four shots in a row and with great difficulty retained the advantage of two points.
But Ivanova frankly failed to cope with Volpi and immediately missed seven shots. Thus, before the last fight, the Italians had already given two injections - 37:35.
Deriglazova had no choice but to snatch victory from Di Franchiska. However, at first the current European champion coped with the actions of the Russian women. Having missed the opponent’s shot, she immediately answered her own and kept the difference.
But at the cost of incredible effort, Inna still managed to perform two precise actions in a row and even the score.
The ending is completely unbelievable. The Italian went forward twice, but the Russian woman every time found the strength to recoup. In the last she managed to do it literally six seconds before the end of the bout, when the judge showed De Francisca a yellow card.
And in the decisive match, Deriglazova still squeezed her rival to one injection and helped the Russian raporist win the World Cup gold for the first time in three years. Inna herself has issued a “golden double” in the foil tournament.
“We are aware that we have become world champions when we get home. Everyone will congratulate, say, what we are great. For this and train. It's great when everything ends on a good note. Now you can relax a little, but ahead of us is a rich Olympic year. Ahead of the Olympics, to which you need to prepare, strive to perform successfully, "- said the two-time world champion.
Failure of the rapiers
But, unfortunately, Russian spearguns couldn’t get through to the quarter-finals. In a bitter struggle, they lost to the Chinese - 41:45 and completed the performance at the tournament.
Victory in this form was eventually celebrated by the French. In the final, they were stronger than Ukraine - 45:37. Bronze went to Switzerland.
In addition, the first play-off rounds took place on Monday in two other team tournaments. Women sablistski from Russia in 1/8 finals confidently broke the resistance of rivals from Azerbaijan - 45:38.
And the male rapiers defeated the Ukraine altogether. For all the confrontation, fencers from the neighboring country made only 18 precise shots.
The victory of the rapier players allowed Russia to catch up with South Korea and France by the number of gold medals - two each. In terms of the total number of awards, domestic fencers are second only to Italians - six to seven.