RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, April 14, 2024 – Italy and USA won gold medals in junior women’s and men’s team foil at the 2024 Riyadh Junior and Cadet Fencing World Championships. Today’s competitions, on the third day of 18 individual and team events taking place from April 12 to 20, included 30 women’s and 37 men’s teams and are being held at the King Saud University Sports Arena.
Italy faced Japan in the final match of junior women’s team foil, winning with a 45-35 score. In the semifinal round, Japan won against Korea, 45-31, while Italy defeated France, 45-24. The bronze medal went to Korea over France, 42-41.
“We are happy we’ve done this together”, said Italy’s Greta Collini. “The funny thing is we won today against all the other teams we’ve lost to throughout this year and we’re very happy how it ended. The match with Great Britain was very difficult because it was the team we lost to at the European Championships, we didn’t get a medal, and we were a bit scared but our fencing today was good!”
USA faced Italy in the final match of junior men’s team foil, winning with a 45-33 score. In the semifinal round, Italy won against France, 45-36, while USA defeated Japan, 45-35. The bronze medal went to Japan over France, 45-29.
“It was a hard-fought day the whole time”, said USA’s Chase Emmer. “We came back in the table of eight; we fought throughout the day and now we’re world champions. We all know each other, we’re all good friends, and we pulled through. It was a really draining day, but it was incredible. We’re all a team.”
Final rankings in junior women’s team foil included Italy (gold), Japan (silver), Korea (bronze), France, Great Britain, USA, Poland and Hong Kong – China.
Final rankings in junior men’s team foil rankings included USA (gold), Italy (silver), Japan (bronze), France, Hungary, Hong Kong – China, Great Britain and Poland.
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.