From May 17th to 19th, Rio de Janeiro hosted the Women´s Epee World Cup, organized by the World Fencing Federation (FIE). The competition was held at the Clube Militar on the Lagoa with 116 athletes from more than 25 countries. This was the first official international fencing competition in Brazil, and the goal is to hold the season´s world ranking and future Rio 2016™ Olympic cycle classification.

“I´m training and focusing on 2016. Without a doubt, one spot will be mine”, commented Brazil´s Rayssa Costa.

With five Olympic Games participations under her belt, German national Imke Duplitzer, says that Rio 2016™ has started on the right foot.

“I remember watching the video announcing the Rio de Janeiro Games and, for the first time in many years, I saw that it is a sports competition that´s being built from the start with real Olympic values: joy in the Games and union by sport. I thought that London 2012 would be my last Olympic competition because I´ll be 41 in 2016, but you never know, we might see each other again here”, she added.

Revenge marks individual competitions among Olympic Athletes

In the individual category, the highlight was the South Korean athlete exacting revenge over the German one. Both had competed in the 2012 London Games semi-finals. On May 17th and 18th, individual competitions were held, and the best fencers duelled for world ranking. Among the athletes were South Korean Lam A Shin, who made it to the 2012 London Olympic Games semi-finals, but was eliminated by Britta Heidemann. During the finals of this past Saturday (18th), the duel was repeated, this time giving the South Korean athlete victory and top Cup ranking. Heidemann, gold medallist in Beijing in 2008 and silver medallist in London in 2012, came in second place in the competition.

In the team competition, on Sunday, the Chinese team won the best, followed by the Ukraine and Romania, respectively.

For Brazil, two athletes came in among the 64 best in individual competitions and won points for the world ranking: Cleia Guilhon, in 53rd place, and Rayssa Costa, three positions below. For teams, Brazil was ranked in 15th place.