France’s Toscane Tori Takes European Gold in Style
The Cadet European Championships began today in the seaside town of Porec in Croatia. Before the first finals began Secretary General of the European Fencing Confederation (EFC), Jacek Slupski, led the Opening Ceremony speeches at the Zatika Sports Hall. There were also speeches from the EFC Vice President, Nikolai Mateev, the City Mayor Loris Peršurič and Marko Kallay, President of the Croatian Fencing Federation, wishing luck and fair play to all of the participants.
The opening day of the event saw seventy-eight women’s sabre fencers take to the piste in a hotly contested battle for the European title. It was 15-year-old French fencer, Toscane Tori walking away with the biggest smile as she claimed the title in fine fashion.
Europe’s number nine fencer, Tori did not have the best start to the day, winning just three of her five ranking round matches, leaving her ranked 31st for the elimination stage. However, she found her form in the fights up to 15 hits. She beat Klaudia Malgrem (POL) 15-9, Zarifa Huseynova (AZE) 15-8, Lola Tranquille (FRA) 15-10 and Zuzanna Porada (POL) 15-7 to make the top four.
Her semi-final was against Israel’s European number 25, Tamar Gordon. She was much more composed at the start of the match and led 8-6 at the break. Clearly confident, Tori employed and “eyes-open” approach to the match – watching and then reacting to her opponent. She closed out the match 15-11, giving herself the chance to go for the title in the final.
Her opponent, Ukraine’s European number four, Oleksandra Bondar demonstrated her wide variety on the way to the gold medal match. She handled European number six Nisanur Erbil of Turkey well in the quarterfinal. Erbil competes on the senior circuit but Bondar beat her comfortably 15-5 before beating Alina Pastukhova of Russia 15-12 in the semi-finals. A feature of that match was Bondar’s ability to vary her actions off the line and adapt in the second phase of the action.
In the title fight, Tori continued to commit to an “eyes-open” approach – a true sign of confidence in such a young athlete. The French fencer led 8-6 at the break and then dominated the final period, in seemingly unstoppable fashion, to win 15-11, to take the European title.
