Israel’s Cohen clinches the first gold medal of the Junior European Championships

Israel’s Yonatan Cohen, individual bronze medallist in Novi Sad in 2022, won the title of Junior Men’s Epee European Champion after a close battle with home favourite Markus Salm.

Cohen exited the preliminary round with a clean sheet, earning him a second seed. He reached the semi-final by beating Bendix Kelpe (GER) 15-8, teammate Dov Ber Vilensky (ISR) 15-12, Aurele Favre (SUI) 15-7 and world no. 1 Simone Mencarelli (ITA) 15-9. In the semi-final he defeated Marco Paganelli (ITA) 15-12 to secure at least a silver medal.

His opponent in the final, hometown fencer Markus Salm, entered the competition ranked 8th. He had a tough way through to the final, however, after winning 4/6 matches in the pool round. He had a BYE through the 128, and then proceeded by defeating Hugo Brandberg (SWE) 13-12, reigning silver medalist Alec Brooke (GBR) 15-14, Daniels Loginovs (LAT) 15-8 and finally Yehonathan Lambrey Messika (ISR) 15-11 to advance to the medal rounds. With the crowd behind him, Salm came out on top 15-12 over Soma Somody (HUN) at a shot for Estonia’s first gold of the championships.

The two finalists were evenly matched and left for the first break at an even score of 5-5. The fencers traded points until 8-8, at which point world no. 6 Cohen began pulling away. The strategy to push Salm down his end of the piste turned out to be a successful one and Cohen won the match 15-11 to claim his second individual European medal.

Junior Men's Epee