Guissone shines for hosts at World Cup

Guissone faced Asian Championships bronze medallist Ammar Ali in the final of the men’s category B, just edging the Iraqi to claim his first ever World Cup foil win.

It was also Ali’s best ever finish in the weapon, improving on his bronze from 2014. Like Guissone, Ali has previously focused most of his efforts on the epee.

Italy’s Michele Massa and France’s Maxime Valet shared third place on the podium.

It was an all-Italian final in the men’s foil category A as Emanuele Lambertini and Matteo Betti faced-off for gold.

Former under 23 world champion Lambertini entered the final as the world No.3 and top-ranked fencer in the competition. He showed his class against Betti, sweeping to a 15-10 victory as he did at the last World Cup in Sao Paulo in 2019.

Two Frenchman joined the Italian duo on the podium. Ludovic Lemoine and Damien Tokatlian got their road to Paris 2024 underway with a bronze each.

Following on from their teammates, Italy’s Loredana Trigilia and Andrea Mogos set the piste alight in the women’s foil category A.

Mogos was looking for a good start to the season in which she will try to add to her European Championships silver medal when the competition takes place in Poland later in the year.

Trigilia meanwhile was competing in her first World Cup foil final since 2017.

It was a close run affair between the pair with Mogos emerging the victor by just one touch.

There was joy for South Korea courtesy of bronze for Hyo Kyeong Kwon, her first international medal. Georgia’s Tokyo 2020 sabre silver medallists Nino Tibilashvili showed her growing confidence in the foil, taking her second consecutive World Cup bronze to follow on from Pisa, Italy, at the end of 2021.

Thailand’s Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist Saysunee Jana took gold in the women’s epee category B. Jana’s win rarely looked in doubt as she sailed through the qualifiers to face Rossana Pasquino in the final.

But Pasquino, normally a sabre specialist, will be pleased with her first epee medal at this level.

The USA’s Ellen Geddes also celebrated her maiden World Cup podium with third, alongside Georgia’s Irma Khetsuriani.

Action continues at the World Cup on Friday (15 April) with the men’s sabre category and A and B and women’s foil category B and epee category A.

The semi-finals and finals are being shown live at the IWAS Wheelchair Fencing website, alongside live results.