MINSK, 13 August (BelTA) - The Belarusian sportsmen were not good enough to finish in the top ten in the men’s foil and women’s saber events at the 2013 MOL World Fencing Championships which concluded in Hungary’s capital Budapest on 12 August, BelTA has learnt.
Belarusian team of Sergei Byk, Alexander Shelenkov, Alexander Lukashevich and Yevgeny Ulasik came in 18th in the men’s team foil. In the last 32 round they were defeated by Team Canada 31-45. Italy became champions, while the U.S. was second and France third.
In the women’s team saber Belarus were represented by Darya Andreyeva, Anna Ivanishchenko, Polina Kasperovich and Olga Kiselyova, who finished in the 15th place. Belarus also met Canada in last 32 of this event and won 45-39 entering the last 16 round. However, the Belarusian team did not manage to put up a good performance against the skilled Team USA who triumphed 45-20. This defeat allowed Team Belarus to continue competing for the 9th-16th places. At this stage Belarus lost to Hungary (25-45) and Spain (35-45). However, the victory over Taiwan (45-40) kin the ultimate bout let Belarus take the 15th place. Ukraine won gold, Russia silver and the U.S. bronze.
Belarus’ best result at the competition in Hungary was the fourth place in the men’s team saber (Alexander Buikevich, Valery Priyemko, Alexei Likhachevsky and Alexei Romanovich). They entered the bronze-medal bout but lost to the Republic of Korea (31-45). In the individual tournaments Belarus’ best performance was Alexander Buikevich’s 11th position in the men’s saber.
As many as 12 medal events took place at the championships in Hungary. Russia topped the medal tally with three gold, five silver and three bronze medals. Italy were second (3, 0, 3), Ukraine third (2, 1, 1), Estonia fourth (2, 0, 0) and the U.S. fifth (1, 1, 1).
The IWF World Championships (wheelchair fencing) were held in conjunction with the 2013 World Fencing Championships in Budapest. Nikolai Bezyazychnyi won the only Belarus’ bronze at the tournament in men’s foil B. He entered the semifinal where he lost to Ukraine’s Anton Datsko (7-15) but nevertheless was on the pedestal, on a par with Russia’s Marat Yusupov, who lost in the other semifinal. Nikolai Bezyazychnyi was earlier sixth in men’s epee B.
Other Belarusians competed in different events of the wheelchair fencing tournament, too. In the men’s epee A Belarus’ Martyn Kovalenya was 6th. Andrei Pranevich (epee B) came in 11th, Viktor Lemashkevich (epee B) 12th and Konstantin Kovalyov (epee C) 5th. On the women’s side, Alyona Galkina was 18th in foil A, while in foil B Alesya Mokritskaya finished 9th and Lyudmila Lemeshkovich 14th.