RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, April 19, 2024 – Hungary’s Dorottya Csonka and Uzbekistan’s Sardor Abdukarimbekov won gold medals in cadet women’s and men’s sabre at the 2024 Riyadh Junior and Cadet Fencing World Championships. Today’s competitions, on the eighth day of 18 individual and team events taking place from April 12 to 20, included 89 women and 110 men and are being held at the King Saud University Sports Arena.
Csonka faced Italy’s Francesca Romana Lentini in the final bout of cadet women’s individual sabre, winning with a 15-10 score. In the semifinal round, Lentini won against Uzbekistan’s Nargiza Jaksybaeva, 15-13, while Csonka defeated Italy’s Vittoria Mocci, 15-10.
“I still can’t really believe it, but I’m extremely happy”, said Csonka. “My goal was to win the World Championships, but in the beginning I couldn’t believe that I could do it because after the pools my first match was a bit tough. But I managed to win, and then I felt like I was unstoppable. In the final I felt like there was no choice of losing, because this year I lost in the finals so many times that I can’t do that again. I’m really happy I could do it. I want to be on the senior national team and my dream is to go to the Olympics.”
Abdukarimbekov faced teammate Alpamis Urakboev in the final bout of cadet men’s individual sabre, winning with a 15-14 score. In the semifinal round, Urakboev won against Japan’s Motoki Kawahara, 15-14, while Abdukarimbekov defeated Korea’s Doyeon Kim, 15-2.
“I feel really good because today I fenced like Szilagyi”, said Abdukarimbekov. “When I started to fence pools, I started to feel too much pain in my leg, but now I’m world champion. The final match was so hard because I fenced with my friend from Uzbekistan. I want to thank the Uzbek federation because of all their support for me, and for my coach, Luigi Tarantino and my first coach, Nazlymov, they are the best in the world. Today I feel like a champion in my heart.”
Final rankings in cadet women’s sabre included Dorottya Csonka (HUN, gold), Francesca Romana Lentini (ITA, silver), Vittoria Mocci (ITA, bronze), Nargiza Jaksybaeva (UZB, bronze), Qimiao Pan (CHN), Sofia Novikova (AIN), Maria Tretyakova (AIN) and Julie Xiao (CAN).
Final rankings in cadet men’s sabre rankings included Sardor Abdukarimbekov (UZB, gold), Alpamis Urakboev (UZB, silver), Motoki Kawahara (JPN, bronze), Doyeon Kim (KOR, bronze), Julian Maklakov (GER), Massimo Sibillo (ITA), Enno Chiang (NED) and Yigit Ayaz (TÜR).
Complete and official results for the event may be found on the FIE website. For more exciting world fencing news and features, check out the YouTube FIE Fencing Channel.