Men’s Foil World Cup, all-Italian podium in Paris

The Italian men’s foil updates history in Paris. È unprecedented and resounding is the feat of CT Stefano Cerioni men’s foil fencers who, in the most fascinating World Cup stage of the circuit, dominate in an all-Italian podium: triumph for Tommaso Marini, silver by Alessio Foconi, bronze for Filippo Macchi and Guillaume Bianchi. The’Mameli anthem plays and four identical flags wave on the sumptuous stage of the Stade Pierre de Coubertin, but è great Italy also in the women’s event with second place by Elena Tangherlini (first medal for her) and third by Martina Favaretto. In short, in the’shadow of the Eiffel Tower, where the Olympic Games will be staged next summer, six out of eight medalists in the individual foil competitions are Italian.

The POKER OF FENCERS
An’apotheosis the men’s competition, which brought back to the highest step of the podium the Milan 2023 world champion, Tommaso Marini, just over five months after shoulder surgery, thanks to the 15-12 with which in the final he overcame Alessio Foconi, whose silver shone, like the third places of Filippo Macchi and Guillaume Bianchi.
A wonderful ride for the four blue musketeers. Significant è was the round of 32 (fatal to ’Olympian Daniele Garozzo and Davide Filippi) in which Pippo Macchi overcame Frenchman Sido (15-13) and Guillaume Bianchi eliminated Spaniard Llavador (15-9), while thanks to two derbies they entered the “top 16” Tommy Marini (15-9 over Edoardo Luperi) and Alessio Foconi (15-13 against Giorgio Avola). Placed in four “channels” different in the scoreboard, the Italian foilsmen have taken a liking to it, stroking the suggestion of the “big hit”, with the single-color podium, which always succeeded to CT Cerioni’s foil with the girls in the ’last individual European Championships in Plovdiv 2023 (gold Batini, silver Favaretto, bronze Volpi and Palumbo). And soì è it was.
In the sixteenth round Macchi and Foconi made Italy-Japan 2-0 by beating – respectively – Matsuyama (15-9) and Imura (15-10), while Marini ruled China’s Mo (15-9) and Bianchi the Hong Kong Olympian Cheung (15-13). As to say: the’Asia è great but the Italian school still gives’lessons. È it also happened in the gripping quarterfinal series: Marini dominated Britain’s Sosnov (15-4), Bianchi iced the home crowd by beating France’s Pauty (15-10) and Macchi eliminated a super champion like the US’s Massialas (15-11). The Italian poker at the De Coubertin l’completed Foconi by overcoming another American, Meinhardt, at the last stroke, 15-14, thus delineating a podium in which the only flag present, four times, would be the Tricolor one.
What was left of the men’s competition è looked like a “Open” national in Italy. In the first semifinal, in which the World and European champions challenged each other, World and European champion Tommaso Marini won 15-9 over continental title-holder Filippo Macchi, while in the second “all-Italian challenge; 2018 world gold medalist Alessio Foconi beat Guillaume Bianchi, 15-6, still on the Paris podium after his silver medal a year ago. So, bronze for Macchi and Bianchi, and a final with Marini beating Foconi with a score of 15-12, before a splendid final embrace.

DOPPIO PODIUM FOR THE GIRLS
Also exhilarating for Italy was the women’s competition. Despite the eliminations of world champion and vice-champion, Alice Volpi (9th ranked) and Arianna Errigo (stop at the sixteenth for her, as for European gold medalist Martina Batini and Olga Rachele Calissi and Camilla Mancini), the Italian foil è managed to fly on the wings, in particular, of Elena Tangherlini and Martina Favaretto, but the performances of Francesca Palumbo (7th) and Erica Cipressa (8th) also remain to be applauded. In the round of 16, the four Italian athletes conquered the “top 8” with Favaretto beating the U.S. Scruggs (15-9), Cipressa overcoming China’s Huang (15-8), Palumbo freezing the hostess Thibus (11-10) and Tangherlini imposing herself on Canada’s Harvey (15-13). In the quarters Cipressa succumbed to China’s Gou (15-7) while Tangherlini mortgaged her first World Cup medal by beating the U.S. Kiefer 15-13, and Favaretto joined her in the semifinals by winning the Italian derby over Palumbo by one decisive hit, 6-5.
The all-Italian semifinal challenge è was hard-fought until the’last breath. Favaretto caught her partner-adversary on 14-14 but è it was Elena Tangherlini who scored point number 15, which è earned her a pass to the final against China’s Qingyuan Chen, who along the way had beaten first Arianna Errigo and then Alice Volpi. È it was China’s wearer who came out on top in the last act, 15-9, but for Tangherlini it remains a shining silver, like Favaretto’s bronze.

The PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Thusì Paolo Azzi, President of the Italian Fencing Federation: “Great the boys, splendid also the girls, an immense applause to all of them, to CT Cerioni and the’entire staff who today have written another splendid page of history for foil and for our entire sport. The Paris stage è a symbolic event in the World Cup panorama and to see an all-Italian podium, with four of our athletes monopolizing it, è something extraordinary that gives credit to a great team effort, which will go on unabated toward the next goals”.
And tomorrow, on the platforms of the De Coubertin, the World Cup stage in Paris will close with the team trials, in which Stefano Cerioni’s Italy (living with him on today’s triumphant day the staff masters Fabio Galli, Giovanna Trillini, Filippo Romagnoli and Eugenio Migliore) will aim for the Olympic pass with the men’s team and to do again very well with the already qualified women’s lineup.

MEN’S FORETTO WORLD CUP – Paris, January 13, 2024

Here are the results
Ranking (290): 1. Tommaso Marini (ITA), 2. Alessio Foconi (ITA), 3. Guillaume Bianchi (ITA), 3. Filippo Macchi (ITA)
The other Italians: 17. Daniele Garozzo, 20. Giorgio Avola, 22. Davide Filippi, 27. Edoardo Luperi, 57. Francesco Ingargiola, 66. Giulio Lombardi, 73. Damiano Di Veroli, 136. Mattia De Cristofaro

Final
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Marini (ITA) b. Foconi (ITA) 15-12

Semifinals
Marini (ITA) b. Macchi (ITA) 15-9
Foconi (ITA) b. Bianchi (ITA) 15-6

Quarterfinals
Macchi (ITA) b. Massialas (USA) 15-11
Marini (ITA) b. Sosnov (Gbr) 15-4
Bianchi (ITA) b. Pauty (Fra) 15-10
Foconi (ITA) b. Meinhardt (Usa) 15-14

Eighth finals
Macchi (ITA) b. Matsuyama (Jpn) 15-9
Marini (ITA) b. Mo (Chn) 15-9
Bianchi (ITA) b. Cheung (Hkg) 15-13
Foconi (ITA) b. Imura (Jpn) 15-10

Tablet of 32
Macchi (ITA) b. Sido (Fra) 15-13
Marini (ITA) b. Luperi (ITA) 15-9
Mo (Chn) b. Garozzo (ITA) 15-11
Bianchi (ITA) b. Llavador (Esp) 15-9
Lefort (Fra) b. Filippi (ITA) 15-10
Foconi (ITA) b. Avola (ITA) 15-13

Round table of 64
Macchi (ITA) b. Ingargiola (ITA) 15-13
Marini (ITA) b. De Greef (Bel) 15-10
Luperi (ITA) b. Pogrebniak (Ukr) 15-12
Garozzo (ITA) b. Guo (Chn) 15-11
Bianchi (ITA) b. Chen (Tpe) 15-6
Filippi (ITA) b. Kumbla (Usa) 15-8
Avola (ITA) b. Lee (Hkg) 15-12
Foconi (ITA) b. Borodachev (Ain) 15-9

FEMALE FLOORBALL WORLD CUP – Paris, January 13, 2024

Ranking (229): 1. Qingyuan Chen (Chn), 2. Elena Tangherlini (ITA), 3. Martina Favaretto (ITA), 3. Jessica Ji Zia Guo (Can)
The other Italians: 7. Francesca Palumbo, 8. Erica Cipressa, 9. Alice Volpi, 17. Martina Batini, 20. Arianna Errigo, 25. Olga Rachele Calissi, 31. Camilla Mancini, 41. Anna Cristino, 58. Serena Rossini, 66. Martina Sinigalia.

Final
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Chen (Chn) b. Tangherlini (ITA) 15-9

Semifinals
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Chen (Chn) b. Guo (Can) 15-13
Tangherlini (ITA) b. Favaretto (ITA) 15-14

Quarterfinals
Tangherlini (ITA) b. Kiefer (USA) 15-13
Favaretto (ITA) b. Palumbo (ITA) 6-5
Guo (Chn) b. Cipressa (ITA) 15-7
Chen (Chn) b. Walczyk (Pol) 15-8

Eighth finals
Favaretto (ITA) b. Scruggs (Usa) 15-9
Chen (Chn) b. Volpi (ITA) 15-7
Cipressa (ITA) b. Huang (Chn) 15-8
Palumbo (ITA) b. Thibus (Fra) 11-10
Tangherlini (ITA) b. Harvey (Can) 15-13

Table of 32
Volpi (ITA) b. Sopit (Ukr) 15-5
Chen (Chn) b. Errigo (ITA) 15-10
Sauer (Ger) b. Calissi (ITA) 15-9
Cipressa (ITA) b. Ranvier (Fra) 15-13
Huang (Chn) b. Batini (ITA) 15-10
Favaretto (ITA) b. Lung (Usa) 15-9
Scruggs (Usa) b. Mancini (ITA) 15-6
Palumbo (ITA) b. Tsuji (Jpn) 15-9
Tangherlini (ITA) b. Dubrovich (Usa) 15-13

Set 64
.
Volpi (ITA) b. Kontochristopoulou (Gre) 15-8
Errigo (ITA) b. Wohlgemuth (Aut) 15-3
Calissi (ITA) b. Taffel (Usa) 15-13
Cipressa (ITA) b. Tripapina (Ain) 15-5
Batini (ITA) b. Ilyosova (Uzb) 15-14
Favaretto (ITA) b. Lyczbinska (Pol) 15-1
Mancini (ITA) b. Rhodes (Usa) 15-7
Palumbo (ITA) b. Druck (Isr) 15-11
Harvey (Can) b. Rossini (ITA) 15-8
Tangherlini (ITA) b. Wu (Hkg) 15-7
Butruille (Fra) b. Cristino (ITA) 10-8

Federscherma Press Release