Second day - Russia Claim Third Gold as Deriglazova Storms to Title

Twenty-eight year old Inna Deriglazova obliterated the field to claim the 2018 women’s foil European title today in Novi Sad, Serbia. The World number one continue the tremendous form that has seen her take five titles from eight tournaments this season, to claim her second zonal title. She beat Italy’s Arianna Errigo 15-9 in the final, as the Italian continues on her quest to be the first fencer in a generation to compete in two disciplines at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games – foil and sabre.

Deriglazova’s progress to the medal matches was serene as she blew everyone away in the ranking round before a relatively comfortable elimination phase. Her semi-final, against Poland’s Martyna Synoradzka, was cut short whilst she was leading, due to injury to the Pole.

Errigo, focussed purely on the foil discipline for these Championships, also cruised through the ranking round but her path to the final was not as easy as the Russian. Her focus and winning mentality saw her ease past tricky Russian, Adelina Zagidullina 15-4 early on, before she battled past German youngster Anne Sauer 15-11. She met her World number two teammate, Alice Volpi in the semi-finals, which was billed to be a tight one. However, Errigo went straight out on the attack and blew Vopli away 15-8.

Deriglazova was clearly prepared for the onslaught from Errigo in the final and after a start, which saw both fencers share the spoils, the Russian maintained a tight distance. She edged out into a lead, disrupting the attacking Italian as she came forward and took a commanding lead. Errigo attempted to slow the fight down to get to the first break but that played into Deriglazova’s hands. The Russian began to unleash her deadly attack and the fight was over (15-9) before the fencers got to the break.

The win means Deriglazova claimed her second European title in six years and means she goes into the World Championships in Wuxi, China, next month as the strongest of favourites.

Full results are available online, here.

The Championships continue tomorrow with the women’s individual epee and men’s individual sabre events.