Olaf Wolf/DFB
The US-American team has become women´s sabre team World Champion on the last day of the 2005 Fencing World Championship. In the finals they defeated the Russian team 45:36. The Hungarian team defeated Poland 45:38 and won bronze. The French men´s foil team became the 2005 Team World Champion. They won 45:31 over Italy. Despite being four points down at the beginning of the final round (31:35), the German team defeated China 45:40 and won bronze, thanks to their last fencer Peter Joppich. No. 1 on the list of medals is still France (ten medals), followed by Russia (seven medals) and Italy (six medals). Today, about 2000 spectators came to the Arena Leipzig and in total almost 15,000 people attended the World Championships.
Today the 2005 Fencing World Championships in Leipzig will come to a close, ending with the team competitions in women's sabre and men’s foil. "We have seen excellent competitions for the World Title", said René Roch, President of the International Fencing Federation (FIE) during the final press conference. “Many nations have fenced for a medal on a very high level and more and more countries are becoming members of the FIE. Many of them will win medals at the 2012 or 2016 Olympic Games, because it takes approximately 8 years to prepare a fencer for the really big competitions. I am glad that our sport is developing so dynamically. We have seen many innovations during these World Championships, such as instant replay or the new centre court. Leipzig has represented fencing perfectly.” As a conclusion from the successful Leipzig World Championships, the International Fencing Federation FIE has defined three goals for the future. Firstly, the universality of fencing is to be expanded; René Roch estimates that 10 to 20 new nations will join the already existing 116 members in the FIE. The second focus will be put on a greater presence of fencing in the media. Introducing transparent masks during World Cup competitions for foil, épée and sabre shall provide an important impetus for that. Thirdly, fencing rules will be simplified, thus making it easier for spectators to follow the bouts. „The German Fencing Association will be a reliable partner for the FIE in realising these goals,“ promised DFB President Gordon Rapp. “We should make sure, though, that the decisions we take will stabilise our sport for the coming years. Changing things annually hardly makes sense and is not within the athletes` means.” Gordon Rapp was also content with the organisation of the 2005 World Championships. “We have realized our vision of an international celebration of fencing. I want to thank the FIE for placing the confidence in us to host a World Championship in Leipzig. I also thank the nearly 200 volunteers, who have supported us during the last few days and weeks; they have been the soul of the Championships.” The 2006 Fencing World Championships will be held in Turin. “Next year in Italy, we absolutely want to reach the same high level as we have seen in Leipzig, maybe we will even be able to top it”, said Cesare Salvadori, President of the Turin 2006 Organisation Committee. “We have the advantage of also hosting the Olympic Winter Games in February, which means that we can use the Olympic facilities also for the Fencing Championships and present our sport on an Olympic level. We also want to cross the barrier of 100 participating nations”, adds Salvadore. In Turin, for the first time both “normal” fencers and wheelchair fencers will compete for the medals together. www.escrime-torino2006.com
Olaf Wolf/DFB
The French team is the new women´s épée World Champion. The 2004 Olympic bronze medalist and no. 3 on the world ranking list defeated the Hungarian team 45:31. The German women´s épée team had been defeated by the future World Champion 38:45 in the semi-finals; in the bout for the bronze medal, however, they defeated the Russian team, the 2004 Olympic Champion, 26:22. This is the third medal for the German Fencing Federation (DFB). The Russian men´s sabre team defeated Italy 45:44 in the final and won gold. The title holder from France defeated the Ukrainian team 45:43 and won bronze. As far as the number of achieved medals is concerned, France is now in the lead with nine medals, whereas Italy won six and Russia five. After the men´s foils team and women´s sabre team competitions, which will take place tomorrow, the 2005 World Championships in Lepzig come to an end.
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15.10.05 6:57 pm
US women's sabre team wins World Championship 45:36 against Russia
15.10.05 6:18 pm
French team is men´s foil World Champion after 45:32 victory over Italy
15.10.05 5:08 pm
Peter Joppich (GER, foil) very happy about the bronze medal after 45:40 victory against China
15.10.05 1:12 pm
Martina Genser (AUT, foil) takes stock for Austrian fencers
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