KAZAN, Russia, Feb. 21-23, 2020— Italian Olympic and world champion Elisa Di Francisca took the individual gold medal at the Kazan Women’s Foil World Cup, and Italy also scored victory in the women’s team foil event. The competition, held at the Kazan Gymnastics Center, drew 152 international women’s foilists and teams from 18 countries.
Di Francisca narrowly took the win in the final match against China’s Yue Shi, 9-8. Shi beat Russia’s Adelina Zagidullina in the semifinal round, 15-10, and Di Francisca overcame teammate and world champion Alice Volpi, 15-7. Notably, Russian Olympic champion and three-time world champion Inna Deriglazova lost to Shi in the quarterfinals, 15-12, and two-time Italian world champion Arianna Errigo went out in the table of 32 to Japan’s Rio Azuma, 15-13.
In the women’s team foil event, Italy won gold against USA in the final match, 45-27. USA beat Poland in the semifinal, 45-36, and Italy defeated France, 45-28. The bronze medal went to France against Poland, 45-41.
Top individual rankings at the Kazan Women’s Foil World Cup included Elisa Di Francisca (ITA, gold), Yue Shi (CHN, silver), Alice Volpi (ITA, bronze), Adelina Zagidullina (RUS, bronze), Inna Deriglazova (RUS), Aida Mohamed (HUN), Fanni Kreiss (HUN) and Rio Azuma (JPN).
Top-ranked teams included Italy (gold), USA (silver), France (bronze), Poland, Russia, Hungary, Japan and Germany.
Complete and official results for the event may be found here on the FIE web site. For more exciting world fencing news and features on the Road to Tokyo, check out the FIE video series on our YouTube channel.