France achieve podium double at home World Cup

There was cause for great optimism within the French camp as 28-year-old Adrien Turkawka reached his first men’s epee category A final.

Turkawka landed himself a shot on gold by executing an impressive win against current Rio 2016 Paralympic champion Gang Sun of China in the semi-final.

The gold medal did however prove to be a step too far for the Frenchman. He faced an even tougher bout against Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist Jianquan Tian in the final, with Tian grabbing the advantage early on.

Turkawka tried hard to turn the match round, clawing a few hits back, but with 14 points Tian needed to land just one hit for victory. He showed his experience and skill, not letting Turkawka or the home crowd unsettle him, and got the decisive touch.

Turkawka’s silver maintained the French record of at least one medal per day in the tournament whilst Tian’s gold was his first.

The bronze medallists were Italy’s Emanuele Lambertini and Sun.

Italian Paralympic champion Bebe Vio triumphed in her second World Cup foil competition since making her comeback from study and injury last month.

Vio faced Thailand’s Saysunee Jana in the women’s category B, easing past her 15-8. Jana will still be pleased with her third podium of the competition having also landed in the top three in the epee and sabre in previous days.

The Chinese duo of Su Kang and Xioa Rong claimed the bronze medals.

Two more of China’s fencers then went onto secure gold in the final two events on Saturday, as well as the hosts reaching their fourth podium.

In the men’s epee category A, Jie Zhang picked-up China’s latest win in Nimes.

He overcame Thailand’s Visit Kingmanaw, who is himself enjoying a run of good form, for gold.

Yohan Peter followed-up on Turkawka’s silver with bronze for France alongside Poland’s Kamil Rzasa.

Haiyan Gu then claimed China’s second gold in the women’s foil category A. She led Ukraine’s Nataliia Morkvych, Italy’s Andreea Mogos and Hong Kong’s Yu Chui Yee onto the podium.

The Nimes 2023 wheelchair fencing World Cup concludes on Sunday with the team events. The men’s epee and women’s foil and the mixed sabre team will feature.