Dream Team insatiable: triumphs in World Cup in Paris

Another magical day for Italian foil at the World Cup stage in Paris: the women’s Dream Team triumphs in the women’s team competition, beating France “away” in the final 45-41, and makes Mameli’s Hymn resound again at the “Stade Pierre De Coubertin” while the men’s foil team finishes fourth and arithmetically detaches the qualification pass for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. It was a special Sunday for CT Stefano Cerioni‘s blue foil, a worthy close to a weekend to be framed.

DREAM TEAM INSAZIABLE
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Stunning Italian women’s foil girls. With the Olympic qualification already mathematically in their pocket since a month (conquered last December in Novi Sad), the reigning world champion team composed of Alice Volpi, Arianna Errigo, Martina Favaretto and Francesca Palumbo è was also queen of this Parisian Cup Sunday. The Azzurri overcame with a double 45-27 Singapore (in the round of 16) and Hungary (in the quarters), then in the semifinals they offered yet another show of strength against Japan, beaten 45-31. The final against France è was exciting, heart pounding, and reaffirmed for the umpteenth time the class of Cerioni’s Dream Team, but also the great team spirit that è underlies these feats. Very good at recovering an initial disadvantage, the Azzurri fought point to point, between continuous reversals of the front with the transalpine women, until the decisive stretch placed by world champion Alice Volpi who wrote the final 45-41 for Italy. Soì for Alice Volpi, Arianna Errigo, Martina Favaretto and Francesca Palumbo è came a success that is worth so much towards “another” Paris, the one of next summer, to which the boys also landed, thanks to their fourth place.

OLYMPIC PASS FOR FLOWERS
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Proud traditionalists, the Italian foilists behaved as worthy heirs of an “old school”: thus, in the’age of online ticketing, they went in person to the Paris box office to get their “paper” ticket for the… Paris Olympic Games. Coincidence or sign of destiny, these days è mere detail, Italy men’s foil has arithmetically detached, with one race d’advance, the Olympic pass right in the French capital, in the most fascinating of the World Cup trials, finishing in fourth place.
The Italian quartet composed today of Daniele Garozzo, Tommaso Marini, Alessio Foconi and Guillaume Bianchi overcame with authority first Austria (45-22) and then Poland (45-36), landing in the semifinals, where è was stopped only at the’last hit, on 45-44, by the United States (then winners of the test ahead of Japan in a final in which the touch of Italy’was represented by the’excellent direction of referee Simona Pierucci). In the match for the bronze against France, the Azzurri were beaten 45-32, but è the placement at the foot of the podium more sweet than ever because é it is worth the certainty of the Olympic pass, which will mean “returning” to Paris in the summer with the maximum number of athletes in the individual competition (three) as well as, of course, being at the starting ribbons of the team competition.
The ticket to the 2024 Games for Italy’s foil fencers comes 24 hours after yesterday’s historic all-Italian podium in the individual competition at the “Stade Pierre de Coubertin” (with Marini gold, Foconi silver, Macchi and Bianchi bronze).

IN THREE GIÀ QUALIFIED
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Italian fencing è thus is halfway through the opera. Women’s foil and men’s foil are arithmetically qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics, and the same can be said of the swordsmen, who, although for the official status of a verdict already basically certain, will have to wait for the World Cup team trial, which for men’s epee is scheduled for late February in Heidenheim. Still open race for Italy in the other three specialties: next appointment in a little less than a month (on Feb. 11) for the women’s epee teams in Barcelona, the women’s saber teams in Lima and the men’s saber teams in Tbilisi.

WOMEN’S FEMALE FENCING TEAMS WORLD CUP – Paris (France), Jan. 14, 2024

Final
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ITALY b. France 45-41

Semifinals
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ITALY b. Japan 45-31
France b. Poland 40-30

Quarterfinals
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ITALY b. Hungary 45-27

Eighth finals
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ITALY b. Singapore 45-27

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Ranking (25): 1. ITALY (Alice Volpi, Arianna Errigo, Martina Favaretto, Francesca Palumbo), 2. France, 3. Poland, 4. Japan

WORLD CUP MALE FIORETTO TEAMS – Paris (France), January 14, 2024

Final
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USA b. Japan 45-39

Final 3°/4°
France b. ITALY 45-32

Semifinals
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Japan b. France 45-43
USA b. ITALY 45-44

Quarterfinals
ITALY b. Poland 45-36

Eighth finals
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ITALY b. Austria 45-22

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Ranking (27): 1. USA, 2. Japan, 3. France, 4. ITALY (Daniele Garozzo, Tommaso Marini, Alessio Foconi, Guillaume Bianchi)

Federscherma Press Release