ATHENS, Greece, March 4-6, 2022—Azerbaijan’s Anna Bashta won the individual gold medal in women’s sabre at the “Coupe Acropolis 2022” World Cup in Athens, and Italy won the team gold. The event took place at the Athens Olympic Sport Complex (OAKA), with 168 individual competitors and 21 teams participating.
Bashta faced Spain’s Lucia Martin-Portugues in the final match of individual women’s sabre, winning the gold with a 15-12 score. Martin-Portugues won against France’s Sara Balzer in the semifinal round, 15-4, while Bashta defeated Poland’s Sylwia Matuszak, 15-13.
In the women’s team sabre event, Italy won against Japan for the gold medal, 45-43. Japan beat Poland in the semifinal, 45-35, and Italy defeated USA, 45-37. The bronze medal went to USA over Poland, 45-44.
Final rankings in individual women’s sabre included Anna Bashta (AZE, gold), Lucia Martin-Portugues (ESP, silver), Sara Balzer (FRA, bronze), Sylwia Matuszak (POL, bronze), Despina Georgiadou (GRE), Sarah Noutcha (FRA), Olga A. Hramova (BUL) and Shihomi Fukushima (JPN).
Final rankings in women’s team sabre included Italy (gold), Japan (silver), USA (bronze), Poland, Hungary, Korea, Azerbaijan and Canada.
Complete and official results for the event may be found here on the FIE web site. For more exciting world fencing news and features, check out the YouTube FIE Fencing Channel.