Italy doubles up as Poland and Korea also strike gold in Veszprém
VESZPRÉM (HUN) – The 49th CISM World Military Fencing Championship continued on Wednesday, 30 September 2026, at the One Veszprém Arena, with another intense day of competition bringing together individual Women’s Foil and Men’s Sabre, followed by the Men’s Foil and Women’s Épée team events.
Italy enjoyed a particularly successful day with gold medals in both the individual Women’s Foil and the Women’s Épée team competition, while Korea claimed the Men’s Sabre crown and Poland produced an impressive performance to secure the Men’s Foil team world military title.
The Women’s Foil competition produced an all-Italian final between Aurora Grandis and Carlotta Ferrari. Grandis had progressed strongly through the direct elimination rounds, defeating Poland’s Julia Walczyk-Klimaszyk 15-11 in the quarterfinal before overcoming Ukraine’s Dariia Myroniuk 15-6 in the semifinal. Ferrari reached the final after beating France’s Ysaora Thibus 15-10 and then Hungary’s Flora Pasztor 15-14 in a particularly close semifinal.
The Italian duel for gold lived up to expectations, with only one touch separating the two fencers. Grandis eventually prevailed 15-14 to become CISM World Military Champion. Ferrari took silver, while Myroniuk and home favourite Pasztor shared the bronze medals. Poland placed three fencers inside the top eight, with Karolina Zurawska fifth, Julia Walczyk-Klimaszyk sixth and Martyna Jelinska eighth.
Korea then took centre stage in the Men’s Sabre competition. Heegeun Hwang claimed the world military title after an excellent run through the tableau. He defeated France’s Lucas Guilley 15-10 in the quarterfinal before surviving a thrilling semifinal against Ukraine’s Andriy Yagodka, winning by the narrowest possible margin, 15-14.
On the other side of the draw, Ukraine’s Yuriy Tsap booked his place in the final after defeating Italy’s Edoardo Cantini 15-13. The gold-medal bout brought Hwang and Tsap together, with the Korean eventually securing a 15-12 victory and the title.
Hwang therefore finished first ahead of Tsap, while Ukraine’s Yagodka and Korea’s Taeyoung Park shared bronze. Poland’s Olaf Stasiak finished fifth, followed by Italy’s Dario Cavaliere and Edoardo Cantini and France’s Lucas Guilley.
The afternoon once again shifted the focus from individual performances to collective strength, and Poland delivered one of the standout team performances of the championship in the Men’s Foil.
The Polish team of Maciej Bem, Jan Jurkiewicz, Andrzej Rzadkowski and Michal Siess began by defeating host nation Hungary 45-34. Their next challenge was top-seeded Italy, but Poland maintained its momentum and recorded another 45-34 victory to reach the final.
France emerged from the other half of the tableau. After an emphatic 45-10 victory over Spain, the French team of Gary Charles, Maximilien Hebey, Wallerand Roger and Rafael Savin faced Ukraine in the semifinal and secured a hard-fought 45-41 victory to set up a France-Poland showdown for the title.
Poland produced another commanding performance in the final. France remained close during the opening exchanges, but the Polish team progressively established control of the match. By the sixth bout Poland had opened a 30-20 advantage, before extending the gap to 40-27 ahead of the final relay. Michal Siess completed the job against Rafael Savin, sealing a 45-33 victory and the CISM World Military title.
Poland consequently took gold ahead of France, with Italy claiming bronze. Ukraine finished fourth, followed by Germany, Hungary and Spain.
The Women’s Épée team event provided an equally dramatic conclusion to the day. Ukraine opened its campaign with a convincing 45-14 victory over Spain before overcoming Romania 34-30 in the semifinal. Italy, meanwhile, defeated Brazil 45-31 and then Hungary 40-25 before edging France 45-34 in the semifinal to secure its place in the gold-medal contest.
The final between Italy and Ukraine proved to be one of the closest team contests of the championship. Neither side managed to establish a decisive advantage as the score moved from 8-6 for Italy after three bouts to 16-15 after five. Ukraine remained within touching distance throughout, and the teams entered the penultimate exchange level at 28-28.
Everything therefore came down to the final bout between Italy’s Gaia Caforio and Ukraine’s Vlada Kharkova. Caforio delivered the decisive touches to give Italy a dramatic 34-33 victory and the world military team title. Together with Beatrice Cagnin and Nicol Foietta, Caforio secured Italy’s second gold medal of the day. Ukraine took silver, while Romania completed the podium with bronze. France finished fourth, followed by Switzerland, Brazil, Hungary, Spain and Canada.
The results brought another highly competitive day to a close in Veszprém, with medals once again spread across several nations and Italy in particular strengthening its presence among the leading delegations.
The 49th CISM World Military Fencing Championship reaches its final competition day today, Thursday, 1 October, with the last two world military titles to be decided at the One Veszprém Arena.
The programme will be entirely dedicated to team fencing, with the Senior Team Men’s Sabre and Senior Team Women’s Foil competitions bringing the sporting programme to its conclusion. Both events will give the leading nations one final opportunity to add a world military title to their championship record.
Following the last bouts and medal presentations, the delegations will come together for the Closing Ceremony, marking the official conclusion of four days of competition in Veszprém. The championship will then conclude with the Gala Dinner, bringing athletes, officials and participating delegations together for a final evening in the spirit of CISM’s motto, “Friendship through Sport.”
(Source: CISM Media & Communication Department - Pictures: Tamás Kovács (HM Zrínyi))
