Polish fencers lead stellar line-up for home World Cup

An impressive 225 wheelchair fencers will take to the pistes in Warsaw, Poland, from 6-9 July as their quest for qualification points for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games continues.

The competition is the third of six World Cups to take place in 2023 and the penultimate edition ahead of October’s World Championships.

Live coverage will be available here as well as live results.

In the women’s epee category A, home hopes are high as world No.1 Marta Fidrych takes to the piste.

Fidrych is a European silver medallist in the weapon and has already topped the podium once this season. The 32-year-old claimed gold at the opening World Cup of 2023 in Washington D.C., USA.

Joining Fidrych will be every single one of the world’s top 10.

These include Paralympic champion Amarilla Veres of Hungary and world No.2 Gemma Collis. The British athlete has herself been in winning form this year with a World Cup triumph in Pisa, Italy.

Kinga Drozdz is another Polish fencer to look out for.

The 28-year-old has an unblemished podium record in the women’s sabre category A this year, landing in the top three in Washington D.C., Pisa and at the most recent World Cup in Nimes, France. Her haul includes two golds. Drozdz is also the European champion and Worlds silver medallist.

Drozdz however currently sits just behind world rankings leader and Paralympic silver medallist Nino Tibilashvili of Georgia.

Tibilashvili grabbed silver in Washington D.C. and in Warsaw will be hoping to add another medal to her collection having finished off the podium in Pisa and Nimes.

Ukraine’s Yevheniia Breus is also not to be discounted as the third-place finisher from Tokyo 2020.

Poland enjoy the same quality in the men’s competition.

Fresh from winning his second consecutive European title, Adrian Castro continues to stamp his authority on the men’s sabre category B. At the three World Cups he has competed at this year Castro has secured two golds and a bronze.

The world No.1 is also a Paralympic medallist from Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.

France’s Maxime Valet is likely to push him hard as the world No.2 and Castro also faces a threat from teammate Michal Dabrowski.

Dabrowski found his form in 2022, grabbing several World Cup medals and winning bronze on his European debut. Into 2023 he has one gold and a bronze under his belt from the sabre.

With a large number of athletes vying for position, the field features many other quality fencers.

Top seeds in all other weapons and categories will feature. These include Thailand’s Saysunee Jana in the women’s epee category B, Great Britain’s Piers Gilliver in the men’s epee category A, Italy’s Andreea Mogos in the women’s foil category A and B, Hungary’s Richard Osvath and Ukraine’s Serhii Shavkun in the men’s foil category A and C and Italy’s Edoardo Giordan in the men’s sabre category A.

Dimitri Coutya leads the rankings in the men’s epee and foil category B whilst Georgia’s Irma Khetsuriani holds the same position in the women’s foil and sabre category B.

In the team events, a series of Paralympic medallists will line-up.

Great Britain and France are the respective men’s foil silver and bronze medallists from Tokyo 2020.

China are the Paralympic champions in the women’s epee whilst Ukraine claimed silver last time around.

The 2023 Wheelchair Fencing World Cup runs until Sunday (9 July). The action begins on Thursday (6 July) with the men’s epee and women’s sabre.