RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, April 12, 2024 – Canada’s Jessica Zi Jia Guo and Japan’s Ryosuke Fukuda won gold medals in junior women’s and men’s foil on the opening day of the 2024 Riyadh Junior and Cadet Fencing World Championships. At the opening ceremony of the competition, being held at the King Saud University Sports Arena, Mr. Ahmed Alsabban, President of the Saudi Fencing Federation, gave opening remarks welcoming all the athletes and participants from around the world. Mr. Abdelmoneim Elhamy El Husseiny, Vice President of the FIE, spoke on behalf of Interim President Emmanuel Katsiadakis and officially declared the Championships open.
With 1449 fencers registered for the Championships from 103 countries, the opening day’s events included 145 women and 177 men and were the first of 18 individual and team events taking place over nine days.
Guo faced Italy’s Irene Bertini in the final bout of junior women’s individual foil, winning with a 15-14 score. In the semifinal round, Bertini won against teammate Vittoria Pinna, 15-13, while Guo defeated Japan’s Rino Nagase, 15-5.
“I’ve fenced many junior worlds and got third in Cairo, but this is my first time winning juniors”, said Guo. “I started pools a little ‘off’, wasn’t too warmed up, and in every bout everyone was such a fighter. In the final, Bertini was a really good fencer and very strong with her hand, but I was able to figure that out. It was a hard challenge and took a lot of muscle and power. I’m super happy and it feels great.”
Fukuda faced Great Britain’s David Sosnov in the final bout of junior men’s individual foil, winning with a 15-11 score. In the semifinal round, Sosnov won against France’s Eliot Chagnon, 15-12, while Fukuda defeated USA’s Samarth Kumbla, 15-11.
“I don’t feel like a world champion yet, but I’m super happy”, said Fukuda. “The final was the most difficult, because he has a really particular style and I was stressed at the final stage. I focused on my stress and myself to win. I think I will be a hero of the young Japanese athletes and want to tell them if you don’t forget your dream, it can come true.”
Final rankings in junior women’s individual foil included Jessica Zi Jia Guo (CAN, gold), Irene Bertini (ITA, silver), Rino Nagase (JPN, bronze), Vittoria Pinna (ITA, bronze), Andreea Dinca (ROU), Yunjia Zhang (CAN), Enqi Jiao (CHN) and Ariadna Tucker (ESP).
Final rankings in junior men’s individual foil included Ryosuke Fukuda (JPN, gold), David Sosnov (GBR, silver), Eliot Chagnon (FRA, bronze), Samarth Kumbla (USA, bronze), Abdelrahman Tolba (EGY), Anas Anane (FRA), Jaimie Cook (GBR) and Pavel Puzankov (AIN).
Complete and official results for this 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.