Ioana Ilieva won a silver medal and Olga Khramova a bronze medal at the international women’s saber satellite tournament, which was held in Sofia. 31 contestants from 10 countries took part in the competition. Bulgaria was represented by 13 fencers led by Ioana Ilieva, Olga Khramova, Emma Neikova, Kalina Atanasova, Beloslava Ivanova and Kristina Milanova.
After fights at an extremely high level, the gold medal was won by Anna Bashta from Azerbaijan, who is 13th in the world ranking and is well known to Bulgarian saber women. In the final, she prevailed over the bronze medalist of the women’s world championship in July of this year, Yoana Ilieva, for whom the silver award remained. The bronze medals were shared by Olga Khramova and Palina Kaspiarovich from Azerbaijan.
Ioana Ilieva started the tournament excellently, recording four wins and one loss in the groups. In the direct eliminations, in a duel for a place among the best eight, the graduate of the fencing club “Svechnikov” with coach Ivaylo Vodenov defeated Meta Mali from Slovenia with 15:6. In the match for a place in the top 4, Ilieva prevailed over Sabina Karimova from Azerbaijan with 15:12. In the semi-final, our saber beat Olga Khramova with 15:11, and in the final she lost to Anna Bashta after a contested meeting and 15:13 in favor of the Azerbaijani.
A total of seven Bulgarian women entered the top 16 in the tournament: Yoana Ilieva (second place), Olga Khramova (third), Emma Neikova (eighth), Beloslava Ivanova (ninth), Kalina Atanasova (11th), Mihaela Nikolova (12th a) and Kristina Milanova (15th). Thus, our female sabers made a strong start to the 2023/2024 season, in which the fight for quotas for the Olympic Games in Paris is ahead.
Yesterday, Todor Stoychev finished in fifth place among men. The race was won by Kryztijan Rab from Hungary. The competition opened the season of the Bulgarian sabers, and fencers from 20 countries took to the paths. Bulgaria was represented by 22 competitors, and three more Bulgarians entered the top 16 – Dimitar Raikin finished 11th, Hristo Efimov was 15th, and Mihail Hadjilazov was 16th.
Todor Stoychev started the tournament excellently. In the groups, he recorded five wins and one loss. In his first match of the direct eliminations, the graduate of the fencing club “Svechnikov” with coach Ivaylo Vodenov eliminated Andri Nikolay Mateev from Iceland with 15:3. In the match for a place among the best eight, Stoychev defeated Dimitar Raikin with 15:8. In a fight for a place in the top 4, our saber faced Kryztijan Rab from Hungary, lost 12:15 and finished the race in 5th place.
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