Romanian fencers celebrate after winning the women’s epee final

The Romanian women’s epee team (Ana-Maria Branza, Simona Gherman, Simona Pop) has brought home the third gold medal of the Romanian delegation in Baku and the fourth of the fencers in the competition.

The final started out badly for the tricolours, Simona Pop losing the first duel, with Irina Embrich (3-5). Simona Gherman reset the balance (6-6) after facing off with Katrina Lehis. Two assaults followed in which Branza, Pop and, respectively, Kirpu and Lehis risked nothing and no points were scored. Ana-Maria Branza took Romania to the advantage after squaring off with Embrich (10-8), Gherman pushed the lead further against Kirpu, who is ranked 3rd in the world, (10-5), Julia Beljajeva reduced the difference against Branza (10-6). Simona Pop managed an excellent duel with Kirpu, gaining a further 5-point advantage for Romania (21-12), while Gherman managed to fend off Embrich’s attacks, managing a definitive win for Romania at 31-25.

The match against Estonia was a re-edit of the final of the European Championships in Montreux (Switzerland) that took place at the beginning of the month, when the tricolour conquered gold following a 45-35 win.

Qualified directly to the semifinals, Romania defeated Russia by 31-24. Before the final duel, the tricolours had a two-point advantage, 23-21, but Ana-Maria Branza, gold medalist in Baku in the individual competition, clearly dominated Sivkova (8-3), despite a leg injury, bringing the Romanian team’s victory.

Romanian men’s sabre team, silver in the finals


The Romanian men’s sabre team has gained the silver medal in the fencing event of the European Games in Baku (Azerbaijan), on Friday, after being defeated by Italy by one point, 45-44.

Massimiliano Murolo won the match by a surprising ballestra in the final exchange against Tiberiu Dolniceanu.

Italy led Romania (Tiberiu Dolniceanu, Iulian Teodosiu, Alin Badea) for the most part of the final, but the tricolours were close to the gold medals. Murolo took Italy on the advantage after the first duel against Teodosiu (5-2). Dolniceanu reduced the difference in the duel against Alberto Pellegrini (10-8) after leveling the score at one point (8-8).

Luigi Miracco consolidated the advantage of the Italians at the expense of Badea (15-12), but Teodosiu managed a remarkable performance against Pellegrini (20-19). Murolo bested Badea (25-22), but Dolniceanu turned the score to Romania’s advantage after defeating Miracco (29-30). The situation remained in Romania’s advantage after the clash between Pellegrini and Badea (34-35), but Italy managed to once again take the lead following the Miracco — Teodosiu face-off (40-38).

The decisive match, between Dolniceanu and Murolo was dominated by the Romanian fencer in its first part, Dolniceanu managing four consecutive points, bringing the score to 40-42, but the Italian managed to score 3 points in a row (43-42) and while Dolniceanu leveled the score twice, Murolo won thanks to his ballestra.

In the semifinal Romania had defeated, just as dramatically, Germany, by 45-44, while in the quarterfinals the Romanian fencers outright defeated Hungary by 45-34.

In the match for the bronze medal, Germany disposed of Russia by 45-44.

The medal tally of the Romanian delegation in Baku is of 12 medals: 3 gold, 5 silver, and 4 bronze medals. AGERPRES