2023 World Fencing Championships, Alberta Santuccio silver and Navaria bronze

Fencing Italy begins the hunt for podiums World Cup in Milan With two medals in the women’s epic thanks to Alberta Santuccio (brilliant silver) and Mara Navarria (defeated in the semi-final but still with a big bronze around her neck), and regrets a third in the same weapon (Rossella Fiamingo He threw himself away after going 8-5 in China’s Sun Yifen) and possibly fourth with Michel Gallo’s “Millennium” saber. But let’s go in order. It was the final match that Santuccio of Catania, born in 1994, won in her first major post-Triple of titles with the team (including Olympic bronze in Tokyo and silver a year earlier at the World Cup in Cairo). Greetings from Sicily by Sergio Mattarella.

Mattarella and the World Cup

After a reckless spread in the morning, the President of the Republic arrived in Milan as planned and was the first head of state in history to inaugurate the World Championship of Blades. Alberta gave him a gift, by coming back in the semi-final Mara from Friuli, who advanced to 12-9 but then could not find the decisive punch. For Navarra, world champions in 2018 in Wuxi, it’s still a big podium, which goes hand in hand with the silver medal last June at the European Championships in Plovdiv. In short, the great veteran (38 years old) knows how to strike again, even if the spotlight this time is from Santuccio, who is able to take several important scalps on the first day of the finals: to reach the Italian derby in the semi-finals: for example, she had to beat the Brazilian, the former blue as well as the former world champion, Natalie Muellhausen, who denied her in the quarter-finals from Mary.

Viamingo inhibition

The gold medal was brought home by another Transalpina, Marie Fleur Kandasamy, one that, like Alberta, has so far primarily built Palms in team competitions. We were talking about Fiamingo. He was about to be on the platform himself, but he collapsed again at the peak of the moment. The Chinese took possession of it again at 8-8, and they did not have priority in favor in the extra minute, and went on the attack at 9-8. Rosella has a lot of regrets, but she tells her boyfriend that she is going to die Gregorio Paltrinieri (“Too bad I could have been on the podium like he did at the World Swimming Championships.”) A lucid analysis, however, doesn’t excuse him: “It is difficult to comprehend such a defeat. I didn’t take advantage of the moment when I closed well in defence. After that, some blows did not come to me, and I had to take refuge in the minute of the match, knowing that this was my weak point: in the last five matches in which this condition arose, I always lost ».

Blue regrets

It is the main one in the “rimpianti azzurri” chapter, where there may also be a missed return Michelle Gallo In the sword: in the quarter-finals against the Egyptian Ziyad Al-Sisi, he finished losing 6-11, but Salernitan managed to return to 14-14, and lost in the decisive momentum (14-15). However, Michelle was born in 2001: as if to say that the future belongs to him. while Richard Nuccio came out at thirty-two, Gigi Samil and Luca Coratoli They had an impact on the toughness of the Round of 16: the silver medalist in Tokyo lost badly (15-6) against the American Dershwitz (who then won gold in the final against the Georgian Bazadze); Instead, Koratoli wasn’t able to do much against Aaron Zelaje, who hasn’t coincidentally been undefeated in an Olympic triple since London 2012. Losing 15-12 to this champion – on top of that the Hungarian came back in the semi-final against Dershowitz, losing in surprising fashion – is tolerable, but it also explains how Luka still lacks that extra something that connects the gun’s orbit.