The individual cadet events at the European Cadet and Junior Championships in Naples, Italy, are over. Both our members, Jurij Beber and Vito Hvala, fenced superbly. In his pool Jurij beat fencers from Azerbaijan and Bulgaria and, with two wins and four defeats, placed 94th, reaching the elimination rounds at his very first European Championships.
After a narrow opening defeat to a Norwegian fencer, Vito went on to beat opponents from Croatia, Portugal and Austria, as well as the eventual finalist from Great Britain. Despite a loss to a Dutch fencer, he won his pool with four wins and two defeats and was ranked a very good 34th after the qualifying bouts.
Unfortunately, our two fencers then met each other in the first qualifying bout for a place in the last 64.
Vito won the club duel, after which he faced a tough opponent, Ukraine's Maksym Gula, the fourth seed. After a tense bout with as many as seven double hits, Vito lost 10:15. He finished the European Championships in an excellent 42nd place out of 127 fencers – one of the best Slovenian results at the European Cadet and Junior Championships in recent years!
All results, cadet men's épée: fencingtimelive.com
Congratulations to Vito and Jurij on their excellent results!
Early next week we'll be keeping our fingers crossed for Nika and Leon, who will compete in the junior category.