Qualification for Tokyo 2020 continued at the weekend at the Cairo Men’s Foil World Cup 2019.
Going into the event France and Italy had already confirmed qualification as top four teams whilst Russia knew that they could not be caught by either Germany or Great Britain in the race for the additional European place. However, Russia were also in a position where they could jump into the top four releasing the European place to their rivals.
In order to do this Russia had to outperform Hong Kong who went into the event in the top four. Both Hong Kong and Russia made the semi-finals but whilst Hong Kong fell to the USA Russia prevailed against France. With Russia in the final, they were confirmed as a top four qualifier and thus released the zonal spot for one of their European rivals.
Germany led that race ahead of the Cairo World Cup, leading Great Britain but both teams went out in the round of 16. A twist of fate saw them facing each other in the match for eleventh place which Germany won 45-38. So Germany will join France, Italy and Russia at Tokyo 2020.
In the individual event, Marcus Mepstead of Great Britain led the race for the two additional European places ahead of Germany’s Benjamin Kleibrink. Given that Germany qualified by the team route, Kleibrink was removed from the Adjusted Olympic Rankings. He vacated the place in favour of Alexander Choupenitch of the Czech Republic who was trailed by Spain’s Carlos Llavador and Polish fencer Michael Siess. A supreme performance from Llavador saw him claim his first ever World Cup win in Cairo and launched him into the second European place. Mepstead continues to lead but Llavador is now just nine points behind.
The final Olympic qualifier takes place at the Anaheim Grand Prix. Mepstead and Llavador are the favourites to pick up the additional European places but Choupenitch and Siess are still in the race.
