Olympic Champion Erika Kirpu Meets Sarah Noutcha and Roman Svichkar After Their Golden Performances in Genova
Genova, 15 June 2025 – Day two of the European Fencing Championships delivered new champions and powerful emotions. Olympic champion and EFC press officer Erika Kirpu sat down with the winners of the day — Sarah Noutcha (FRA) and Roman Svichkar (UKR) — to talk about their victories in women’s sabre and men’s epee.
Sarah Noutcha: “I kept doing my thing”
Erika Kirpu: Sarah, congratulations on your victory. This is an amazing result. How do you feel?
Sarah Noutcha: Thank you very much. I'm so, so happy. I think I’m not realizing it yet, but I’m so happy. But it’s true — yes. It’s my first victory, so I’m so happy. I have no words.
Erika: But French sabre seems to be on fire. You’re doing so well.
Sarah: I saw Rémi yesterday and Jean-Philippe, who made two medals, and I wanted to do the same. So I’m very happy, because it was a hard day — very tough opponents. But I think I just took some pleasure, and I did my game.
Erika: Which was the toughest match for you today?
Sarah: For me, the toughest match — maybe the 8th, against Yoana — because she’s a very, very good opponent. Everyone is, but Yoana is like third in the ranking now. So I knew that it would be a big match, and I’m happy to have won this one.
Erika: What allowed you to overcome the difficulties?
Sarah: I think I trusted myself and I kept doing my game, even if I didn’t score every touch. I tried to do my game, make my choices, and have some pleasure.
Erika: And the last question — about the final. You were fencing against Alina Komashchuk, and Olga Kharlan was helping her. So how was it? What was your approach for that?
Sarah: The approach was the same as the other matches. I know that Alina is a very, very tough opponent, so since the beginning I gave all I had to have a little space. So I saw that it was good, and I kept doing my thing, my thing, my thing.
Erika: You seem to be very determined. Congratulations.
Sarah: Thank you very much.
Roman Svichkar: “Today, I was the mongoose”
Erika Kirpu: Roman, congratulations! Amazing fencing. How important is this medal for you?
Roman Svichkar: I'm very happy — for the national anthem. It’s a dream. I wanted to cry… but I didn't. And now it all worked — the team, we changed coaches, and I have big support from Nikishin and Reizlin. Reizlin used to be first in world ranking before, and Nikishin second. It’s best support, and now I’m very happy.
Erika: How was your season? How did you feel during this season?
Roman: My season sometimes went up, but I didn't have good results. I went to Paris before, and I loose for top 16. And then I started feeling better… really, but not best. Then I changed my mentality, and today I was able to feel the best focus during the whole day.
Erika: Wow, you said you changed mentality — so how did it become?
Roman: My character is very impulsive. I like speaking. But today, I was close. I was focused. I don’t know what is this, but today it worked.
Erika: You were very focused. If you could name your condition today as one character, who would you be?
Roman: Maybe mongoose — the animal. It every time searches and attacks, I see it in me.
Erika: And today it brought you luck. How was it to fence in Italy? I heard that after the award ceremony, you said grazie mille to the public.
Roman: Yeah, have good fight. And in the final my opponent was from Italy — and I wanted to say thank you to the public together with him.
Erika: Yeah, I saw, I saw.
Roman: It’s for pleasure — for the citizens. I want to thank all people. Grazie mille, all citizens.
You can watch the full interviews in video format on our Instagram page: @eurofencing
More voices of victory are coming tomorrow!
