2002 World Fencing Championships

The 2002 World Fencing Championships were held in Lisbon, Portugal. The event took place from August 18 to August 23, 2002.

2002 World Championships in Fencing
Host cityPortugal Lisbon, Portugal
Date(s)August 18 – August 23

Overview

Lisbon obtained the right to organize the championships over Bari, Italy. The event was first to take place from August 12 to August 18, but was reported a week later at the request of the main sponsor and of the television stations, which feared poor audience figures.[1]

84 countries–a record at the time–took part in the championships. The competition saw the clear domination of Russia, who came away with nine medals, including six golds. Stanislav Pozdniakov and Svetlana Boyko obtained a double gold haul respectively in men's sabre and women's foil. Boiko shared the podium with teammate Yekaterina Yusheva, who in quarter-finals had put an end to Valentina Vezzali's streak of gold medals in 1999, 2000, and 2001.[2] Pavel Kolobkov earned a gold medal in men's épée, eight years after his last major title and with a very limited preparation: he was then working as a fencing coach in Boston and rarely took part in Fencing World Cup events.[3] Russia also prevailed in women's team sabre, overcoming Hungary in the final. Ironically, these two countries were the most adamant against the introduction of women's sabre at the Olympics.[4]

The Lisbon championships proved however a disappointment for France, whose medals tally dropped from ten at Nîmes 2001 to five. The French preparation for the championships had been affected by a personal conflict between Philippe Omnès, director of fencing of the French federation, and Christian Bauer, national coach for sabre, as well as the positive drugs test of Laura Flessel-Colovic a few days before the competition.[5] France boasted only one gold medal in men's team épée, won against Russia.

The remaining medals were relatively spread out between other nations. Romania claimed three bronze medals: one in women's team foil, Laura Badea's first medal after her return from maternity leave, one in men's sabre for Olympic champion Mihai Covaliu and one in women's épée for 17-year-old Ana Maria Brânză.[6] The main surprise however was the growing power of Asian fencing: Korea's Hyun Hee defeated successively favourites Laura Flessel and Imke Duplitzer to earn the gold in women's épée, while China's Tan Xue claimed the title after seeing of previous incumbents Anne-Lise Touya and Elena Jemayeva.[7]

Medal table

RankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1 Russia (RUS)6219
2 France (FRA)1315
3 Germany (GER)1225
4 Hungary (HUN)1124
5 Italy (ITA)1113
6 China (CHN)1023
 South Korea (KOR)1023
8 Azerbaijan (AZE)0112
 Poland (POL)0112
10 Estonia (EST)0101
11 Romania (ROU)0033
12 Belarus (BLR)0011
 Spain (ESP)0011
Totals (13 entries)12121842


Medal summary

Men's events

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Épée Russia Pavel Kolobkov France Fabrice Jeannet South Korea Ku Kyo-dong
Belarus Vitaly Zakharov
Foil Italy Simone Vanni Germany Andre Wessels Poland Piotr Kielpikowski
China Wu Hanxiong
Sabre Russia Stanislav Pozdnyakov France Julien Pillet Romania Mihai Covaliu
Italy Luigi Tarantino
Team Épée  France
Benoît Janvier
Fabrice Jeannet
Jean-Michel Lucenay
Hugues Obry
 Russia
Pavel Kolobkov
Sergey Kochetkov
Aleksey Selin
Vyacheslav Selin
 South Korea
Gu Gyo-Dong
Kim Jeong-Gwan
Lee Sang-Yeop
Yang Roy-Sung
Team Foil  Germany
Ralf Bißdorf
Dominik Behr
André Weßels
Lars Schache
 France
Brice Guyart
Loïc Attely
Jean-Noël Ferrari
Franck Boidin
 Spain
Javier Menéndez
Luis Caplliure
José Francisco Guerra
Javier García Delgado
Team Sabre  Russia
Aleksey Dyachenko
Aleksey Yakimenko
Stanislav Pozdniakov
Sergey Sharikov
 Italy
Giampiero Pastore
Giacomo Guidi
Aldo Montano
Luigi Tarantino
 Germany
Dennis Bauer
Michael Herm
Harald Stehr
Alexander Weber

Women's events

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Épée South Korea Hyun Hee Germany Imke Duplitzer Romania Ana Maria Brânză
Germany Britta Heidemann
Foil Russia Svetlana Boyko Russia Yekaterina Yusheva Hungary Edina Knapek
Hungary Aida Mohamed
Sabre China Tan Xue Azerbaijan Yelena Jemayeva France Cécile Argiolas
Russia Yelena Nechayeva
Team Épée  Hungary
Hajnalka Kiraly
Tímea Nagy
Hajnalka Tóth
 Estonia
Maarika Võsu
Irina Embrich
Olga Aleksejeva
Heidi Rohi
 China
Luo Xiaojuan
Li Na
Shen Weiwei
Zhong Weiping
Team Foil  Russia
Svetlana Boyko
Yekaterina Yusheva
Julia Khakimova
Olga Lobyntseva
 Poland
Sylwia Gruchała
Magdalena Mroczkiewicz
Anna Rybicka
Małgorzata Wojtkowiak
 Romania
Laura Badea
Roxana Scarlat
Cristina Stahl
Reka Szabo
Team Sabre  Russia
Yelena Nechayeva
Margarita Zhukova
Irina Bazhenova
Natalia Makeyeva
 Hungary
Edina Csaba
Orsolya Nagy
Annamária Nagy
Gabriella Sznopek
 Azerbaijan
Yelena Amirova
Yelena Jemayeva
Anzhela Volkova
Yana Siukayeva

References

Sources

  • FIE Results
  • Ottogalli, Cécile; Six, Gérard; Terret, Thierry (2010). Un pour tous, tous pour un. L'histoire des championnats du monde d'escrime. Paris: Le Cherche Midi. p. 31–4. ISBN 978-2-7491-1372-2. WCH.
  • Safra, Jean-Marie (2002). "The Russian flag flew over Lisbon". Escrime Internationale (41): 25–9. FIE.
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