Gallant Aussies go down in Tables of 32
Both the Australian Men’s Foil and Women’s Epee teams took to the piste on Tuesday in Hong Kong, each looking to advance as far as possible at the Senior World Championships.
The Men’s Foil team (seeded 31st) was in action early as it looked to progress from the Table of 64 with a match up against 34th seed Thailand.
Made up of Joseph Glasson, Hugo Bosnic, Samuel Mooney Grand and Aron Thian, the team got off to a great start to rush to a five-pouch lead through three periods.
The Thai team fought back and with two bouts left we were down 34-35.
Bosnic then had a cracking penultimate period registering a 6-2 score against Ratchanavi Deejing, before Glasson brought the team home to win the match 45-41.
From there the team faced third seed USA who proved to be tough opponents, and despite our best efforts we went down 23-45, with Glasson recording 14 touches from his three bouts.
The result meant we finished 30th overall at the tournament.
In the Women’s Epee event our team of Genevieve Gilarski, Amelie Yee, Ashley-Mae Harrison and Cheelyn Wang started in the T32 after receiving a bye through based on our ranking.
But it was never going to be an easy task against the fifth seeded Italian Team and our opponents raced away to a 25-5 lead through five periods.
Gilarski then squared the ledger with Italian Gaia Caforia (5-5) before Yee and Harrison also managed to get some touches in their bouts but ultimately we were no match going down 14-40.
Speaking after the matches, both of our coaches were in reflective moods.
Rob Di Pasquale – Men’s Foil
“I think we had a pretty good day. We fought very hard against Thailand, and we were basically fencing the whole way and ended up winning.
“Then against the USA, who is probably one of the top two teams in the world, the guys gave it their all which is all I can ask.
“Overall we did the job we were here to do, which is make sure we’re getting to the 32. And we need to improve our seeding in order for us not to have to fight a top four team in the 32 – that’s what we need to do.
“The boys are fantastic, and it’s one of the things I’m trying to encourage – it is worth several points in a team if you have the team spirit working – it can make a difference between a win and a loss.
“Overall our Men’s Foil fencers had a pretty good event.”
Oleksii Tyshko – Women’s Epee
“Maybe we had some chance here, but we need to do more training, we need more practice at international camps and we need to play more at an international level and overseas.
“For now our experience is not compatible with the level in the rest of the world, so we just need to do more work at home.
“It’s tough coming up someone against someone like Italy – Italy is one of the strongest teams in the world and we created some small difficult situations for them.
“The girls tried to do their best, but we need more experience. It was good to come to the event and for them to see what the world level is, and now we go home and start again.”
To view the results from the event click here: https://shorturl.at/xoezQ