Russia 15-year-old Ekaterina Kolbeneva beats teammate to European Title
The Cadet European Championships continued today in Porec, Croatia. 113 fencers took part in the second medal tournament of day two of these spectacular championship – the Cadet Women’s Epee.
European number 5, Ekaterina Kolbeneva stormed to the title at just 15-years-old. She came through the ranking round with an unblemished record and was ranked 4th for the elimination stages. A bye through the incomplete round of 128 was followed by victories over Bianca Morianu of Romania 15-12, Belarussian Aliaksandra Tsurskaya 15-8, Elena Seille of France 15-5 and European number 6, Iulia Polozova of Russia 15-8 to make the medal matches.
There she faced the favourite and European number 1, Gloria Klughardt of Poland. The 17-year-old pommeller had a shaky start to the day winning just three of her six ranking round matches. She found her form in the elimination stages though, knocking out Europe’s number two in this discipline and teammate, Alicja Lasik 15-11 on route to the semi-finals. Kolbeneva displayed the patience of someone much older. Trailing 3-2 at the first break, she had forced her opponent into non-combativity – a tactic that proved to be crucial in the end. She drew level at 6-6 at the second break before fighting back from behind in the third period. Having established the lead Kolbeneva left it to Klughardt to do the work and with the threat of a second non-combativity call the Polish fencer was forced to press. Kolbeneva saw the fight out but only just 15-14.
In the other half of the draw both Italy’s Gaia Caforio and Russian Iana Bekmurzova cruised through to the semi-final against each other. Caforio was much more active in the match but went into the break level at 5-5 with the Russian. Bekmurzova’s game plan then came out. She had been working out the distance and patiently fought her way to an 11-10 lead at the next break. Feeling the pressure, the Italian chased the match and went down 15-12 as a result.
The final was another display of maturity beyond her years from Kolbeneva. She began the match playing with the distance as her teammate watched on, reacting to any mistake. Patience again was the key because Bekmurzova suddenly decided to press more. Kolbeneva led 6-4 at the first break. It turned out to be a lead she would never give up. Bekmurzova knew she had to be more patient but also knew she had to close the gap. Kolbeneva continued with her patient approach and struck whenever her teammate got too close. Going into the final period, Kolbeneva led 14-12 and she closed out the match 15-13, taking the European title in impressive fashion.
