RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, April 15, 2024 – France’s Oceane Francillonne and Switzerland’s Alban Aebersold won gold medals in junior women’s and men’s epee at the 2024 Riyadh Junior and Cadet Fencing World Championships. Today’s competitions, on the fourth day of 18 individual and team events taking place from April 12 to 20, included 169 women and 214 men and are being held at the King Saud University Sports Arena.
Francillonne faced Canada’s Julia Yin in the final bout of junior women’s individual epee, winning with a 15-12 score. In the semifinal round, Yin won against Italy’s Anita Corradino, 11-10, while Francillonne defeated USA’s Leehi Machulsky, 15-14.
“I don’t realize it yet, my mind is still on the piste”, said Francillonne. “It was actually a tough day, I went match-by-match, point-by-point, instead of focusing on the end. The hardest part was for me to ‘stay in my mind’, even if my opponent was getting points on me. It’s my last year of juniors and I was really glad to achieve this. This was a lot of sacrifice for my family, my club, so I’m really happy.”
Aebersold faced Great Britain’s Alec Brooke in the final bout of junior men’s individual epee, winning with a 15-14 score. In the semifinal round, Brooke won against Italy’s Nicolo’ Del Contrasto, 15-9, while Aebersold defeated USA’s Samuel Imrek, 15-9.
“It’s incredible, I don’t have the words to describe it”, said Aebersold. “It was a lot of emotion for my coach, my parents, my friends who are here to support me. This was a lot of training this year, only for fencing, and then I won. Today was a feeling I’ve never had before, I was like a ‘fish in the water’, I just knew what I had to do and I did it! I was so proud to hold the Swiss flag and to represent my country.”
Final rankings in junior women’s epee included Oceane Francillonne (FRA, gold), Julia Yin (CAN, silver), Anita Corradino (ITA, bronze), Leehi Machulsky (USA, bronze), Emily Conrad (UKR), Michaela Joyce (USA), Dilnaz Murzataeva (UZB) and Ekaterina Kolbeneva (AIN).
Final rankings in junior men’s epee rankings included Alban Aebersold (SUI, gold), Alec Brooke (GBR, silver), Nicolo’ Del Contrasto (ITA, bronze), Samuel Imrek (USA, bronze), Jungbeom Kim (KOR), Erik Tobias (EST), Matteo Galassi (ITA) and Kohaku Yasui (JPN).
Complete and official results for the event may be found on the FIE website. For more exciting world fencing news and features, check out the YouTube FIE Fencing Channel.