They made lunges: how our fencers performed at the World Cup in Tbilisi

The Russian national team finished its performance at the World Championships in Tbilisi with three medals: one gold and two silver. Unfortunately, on the final day, our sabre team, consisting of Olympic champions, could not reach the podium, losing to the Chinese national team in the 1/8 finals. Nevertheless, considering that for many of our leaders it was the first major international tournament in the last three years, as well as the nervous atmosphere surrounding the Russian team in the Georgian capital, the overall result can be considered positive.

A restless championship

Our national team came under pressure even before the start of the World Cup. Ukrainian sabre player Olga Harlan initiated a letter from 447 athletes from 56 countries, which stated that they did not agree with the admission of the Russian team to the tournament in Tbilisi. Many of the signatories remained anonymous or had long since retired. But that didn't stop them from objecting to the neutral status for Russians representing CSKA, such as Yana Yegoryan and Sofya Velikaya. It should be noted that the FIE did not react to this in any way, but the sediment remained.

In the middle of the tournament, a number of anti-Russian actions took place. First, a firecracker exploded at the hotel where our team was staying. Then a group of activists holding Georgian and Ukrainian flags staged a rally near the stadium.

These actions forced local law enforcement agencies to strengthen the protection of the event and the Russian athletes personally.

"For the first time, you are more concerned not about performance, but about the safety of our athletes and coaches," Ilgar Mammadov, president of the Russian Fencing Federation, admitted to Izvestia. — That's what we've come to! I never thought that when we left for a neighboring country, we would negotiate with our friends to provide us with additional security.

At the previous World Championships in Milan in 2023, the Russian team was left without medals. Only then, none of our leaders were allowed to enter the FIE tournament. Only seven fencers of the second and third echelons of the national team competed in neutral status, and the loudest was the scandal with the refusal to shake hands, arranged by the same Harlan after a duel with Russian Anna Smirnova. The last full-fledged World Cup for Russians in Budapest 2019 ended in first place for us in the overall medal standings.

This was not expected in Tbilisi now. This was affected by the three-year absence of the majority of Russians from the international arena, and it is still not the strongest squad (some athletes are still waiting for neutral status). However, there were certain hopes in the Georgian capital. On the opening day, medals were expected from skewer skewer Aizanat Murtazayeva. She arrived in Tbilisi with the title of the reigning European champion, which she had won a month earlier in Genoa, Italy. Unfortunately, at the World Cup, her path in the individual tournament ended already in the 1/32 finals.

Russian neutrals could have performed better in team tournaments. This also applies to the men's foil, where we had the newly-minted silver medalist of the World Championship Kirill Borodachev, and the women's foil, in which they could not pass the Ukrainian national team in a crucial match (36:45 in the 1/8 finals), and, of course, the women's sabre. In the latter type of weapon, Russia had the most powerful team in terms of names: Olympic champions Olga Nikitina, Sofia Velikaya, Yana Egoryan. But in Tbilisi, the dream team stopped in the 1/8 finals, where Yegoryan led our team ahead, Nikitina held the level, but the Great One did not work out in the duels against the Chinese women - all three were lost.

Many people expected a medal from Sofia in the individual tournament. However, even before the World Championships, Ilgar Mammadov warned that our titled sabre player was already 40 years old, and in recent years she had been doing, roughly speaking, fitness to keep fit. Therefore, medal expectations from the Great were something like waiting for a miracle. It didn't happen. In the 1/64 finals, Sofia lost to Ukrainian Yulia Bakastova with a score of 14:15.

"It's a big breakthrough that we're performing here at all," the Great one explained to Match. — Intense, exciting tournament, top-level wrestling. I've never had such a result... I understood the responsibility, but sport is sport. We still have a strong national team, and we will surely achieve victory. I should have taken more risks. I made one more mistake, what can I say here.

A special person

The victory that the Great One spoke about did not have to wait long. On the day when firecrackers exploded at our hotel and dissatisfied people were making noise at the stadium, Yana Yegoryan brought gold to the Russian national team.

The two-time Olympic champion simply swept through the grid of the individual sabre tournament: 15:11 victory over the World and European Championships medalist Lisa Pustai in 1/32, 15:6 over compatriot Alexandra Mikhailova in 1/16, 15:9 over Kazakhstan Anastasia Gulik in 1/8, 18:9 over the European champion in the Italian Toscana Tori team in 1/4, 15:8 in the semifinals over Chinese Pan Qimiao and 15:11 over Polish Zuzanna Ceslar in the final.

"What Yana did is a miracle that we secretly believed in, but not to the end," Ilgar Mammadov continued. — You could only admire how tactically well she fenced and what style she used. She also lost 8:2 in the final. Can you imagine how it could have ended if it hadn't been for her willpower? I'm really glad it ended like this. This is a great celebration for Russian fencing and sports in general. She hadn't competed at the World Championships for six years, skipped the Olympics when she decided to become a mom, and after all this time, she hit the track for the first time. And immediately the world champion in individual competitions! What Yana does is unique to special people.

For Yegoryan, this is her first personal gold at the World Championships. Although a couple of months before the tournament, she said that she was not destined to get to such a major international tournament, since no one would give her neutral status.

Also, despite many circumstances, the Russians won silver medals in Tbilisi. Kirill Borodachev opened the national team's piggy bank. Yes, our rapier player has already won Olympic silver, but in the team event. In personal disciplines, he did not have podiums at major competitions. At the recent European Championships, he took 13th place, even lower than his brother Anton. In Tbilisi, all that was missing was the victory in the final over the representative of Hong Kong, Ryan Choi (9:15).

Our skewers were able to justify their failures in the individual tournament. Until the final of the team tournament, the Russians did not allow their rivals to reach the score of 40, but they did not have enough strength in the golden match against the French. Nevertheless, silver is the first major success for the Russian women's sword in the team tournament in almost 20 years.

Three medals, one of which is gold, is a good result for us in the current conditions. At least we performed better than at the European Championships a month ago (there was one gold and two bronze medals). This means that there is an upward movement, considering that there were swordsmen from all continents competing now. But at the next World Cup, which will be held in the summer of 2026 in Hong Kong, I already want more.