Italy’s 16-year-old Matilde Calvanese beats Russia’s Darya Malysheva for gold on day three
The Cadet European Championships continued today in Porec, Croatia. The Cadet Women’s Foil tournament saw a field of 94 compete for the coveted title and it was no surprise to see an Italian-Russian final.
European number 3, Matilde Calvanese began her campaign in fine style, winning all six of her ranking round matches and dropping just six points. Ranked 1st for the elimination phase she eased past Heloise Jordens (BEL) 15-7, Lal Ertun (TUR) 15-9, teammate and European number 8 Margherita Lorenzi 15-7 and Anastasia Beznosikova (RUS) 15-6 to make the semi-finals.
Her next opponent was 14-year-old British fencer, Carolina Stutchbury. Ranked 55th in Europe Stutchbury was not taken into double figures throughout the eliminator, beating European number 13, Luca Holland-Cunz (GER) on her way to the top four. At the start of the semi-final match both fencers were intent on trying to build long attacks or pick the moment to attack into preparation. Cancelling each other out Calvenese went into the break with an 8-7 lead. The Italian came out for the second period and very slightly lengthened the distance, giving her more room to land the final action. It worked and she won the fight 15-12.
In the other half of the draw Ukrainian Olga Sopit lived up to her billing as the European number 5 and she had to. She took out European number 4, Karina Vasile (ROU) 15-13 and European number 2, Kristina Petrova (UKR) 15-9 on her way to the medal matches. Her semi-final opponent was Russia’s Darya Malysheva who began the match with a great deal of patience as she looked to find the moment to attack. It meant for a slow start because Sopit was waiting for the attack, to try to land her ruthless ripostes. The Ukrainian led 4-3 at the first break but when they came back out Malysheva had changed her game plan. The Russian began to operate off her opponent’s blade and went 11-6 up at the second break. That was enough of a lead for the Russian to take the fight 15-10 in the final period.
Calvenese began the final against Malysheva in scintillating form. Clearly having watched the Russian in her semi-final Calvenese decided that she would control the blade actions in the final, both in attack and defence- and it worked. She led 8-2 in no time at all and looked like she would cruise to the title. However, she seemed to lose her concentration or perhaps relax a little too much, giving away a couple of hits before seemingly composing herself. She went back to attacking with the blade but Malysheva started landing unanswered counterattacks, getting back to 8-8. Calvenese showed a great deal of maturity at that stage and began to slow down the start of her attacks. She steadied the ship to lead 13-9 at the break. The Italian returned to the piste for the second period looking confident and determined and took the European title 15-10 with a classy stop-hit to finish.
