Glasson and Gilarski lead the way on day one
Australian athletes have put on a good showing at the opening day at the Senior World Fencing Championships, with four out of our eight competing athletes making it out past the pools.
In Men’s Foil Joseph Glasson led the way winning through to the table of 64 which takes place on Saturday morning time. He finished the pools 5-1 before beating his T96 Belgian opponent to advance through.
Hugo Bosnic was not far off joining him but was narrowly defeated 14-15 by Chun-You Kuo of Taipei in the T128 to finish the event in 116th.
Samuel Mooney Grand and Aron Thian battled hard but were unable to advance out of the pools finishing with 1-5 and 0-5 records respectively.
In Women’s Epee both Geneveive Gilarski and Ashley-Mae Harrison made it out of the pools – with Gilarski going on a great run at the tournament to finish in 91st.
After finishing her pools 3-3 Gilarski edged past Uzbekistan’s Malika Khakimova 14-13 in the T128 before she fell to Ukrainian Emily Conrad 15-8 in the table of 96.
Harrison finished her pools with a 2-4 record but a great indicator had her advancing to the 128. In the DE she took on Swede Liv Olsson who was too difficult a task going down 8-15.
Amelie Yee and Cheelyn Wang both finished their pools 1-5 and unfortunately didn’t manage to advance further.
WHAT THEY SAID:
WOMEN’S EPEE:
Genevieve Gilarski
“I started off a bit rocky. In pools, I wasn’t really finding my timing and rhythm, but as the day progressed, I was able to find that and I was able to overcome and beat the Hong Kong girl who was obviously a favourite to win.
“At that point I knew I had I found my rhythm and was really of the mindset that I know how to fence again. I saw on the draw I had an Uzbek girl who was much higher ranked than me, but I knew I could win. And even when she was up two points -13-11, I had this feeling inside that I want this way more than she does, and was able to turn that around.
“Overall my first Senior World Champs – I can’t complain getting out of pools and winning a DE.”
Ashley-Mae Harrison
“I feel like I did alright, but there’s always room for improvement, and I want to come back stronger, and I will come back stronger next year.
“It’s an absolute honour to pull on the green and gold and represent Australia and I love making our country proud.”
Amelie Yee
“Big day today. I don’t even know where to start. It has been a long and really good season, so to have it culminate in one day means I have a bit of mixed feelings because there’s always more we can work on.
But also some there are definitely some things to be happy with to take away as well, so, I have continued to learn a lot and we’ll keep building.”
Cheelyn Wang
“Since it is my first World Championships it has been a real learning experience as I shift my focus from Juniors to Seniors. Going up against the best of the best and just seeing fencers I’ve looked up to for a long time has been really inspiring.
“I didn’t do as well as I expected of myself but I’m happy with the progress I have been making. I’m looking forward to the team event and pushing myself even more.”
MEN’S FOIL:
Joseph Glasson
“I think I fenced all right – I think definitely room to improve, but I think the most important thing is just that I got the job done, and I think it’s encouraging that even not when I’m not at my 100% best, I can still progress the next day.
“I think it was a relief. I dropped one match by a single touch. So I was pretty close to making it straight through and it was good to win another close one.
“I think after it was like four hours – four hours of break between my pool and my DE, it was just good to get out the way, and look at recovering over the next couple of days.
“I think it’s a great preparation and I’m looking to make a deep run on Saturday.”
Hugo Bosnic
“It was an up and down day for me. Overall I fenced pretty well and to know I came so close to making it through to the next day of competition so there were some good experiences.
“But there were many good moments for me today which showed that this is where I am meant to be and belong here, so I will keep working and training hard and hopefully go another step further next year.
“It is always great to be part of the Australian Team, and was good to see the others fence well and support Jo making it do day two.”
Samuel Mooney Grand
“It is a much shorter than what I would have liked, but on the whole there were some positives in there as well.
“I lost a number of close bouts which you have to convert to be able to go through and that was a little bit disappointing, but the actual quality of the bouts were pretty high so I was happy with that.”
Aron Thian
“We’ll get there next time. I mean, there are no free bouts in your pools, but there was also no-one that I shouldn’t have been able to beat on a good day.
“Obviously, it wasn’t a good day for me. I think I was just really tired from training in the week before, but I’ll learn for next time.”
To view the results from the event click here: https://shorturl.at/xoezQ
To view the broadcast of the event head to https://fencingtv.com/