Three Greek fencers will compete in the Women’s Epee Grand Prix in Orléans, France, while another five will make their epee debut with the Novi Sad World Cup.
Women’s Saber Grand Prix, 7-9 December – Orleans (France)
Despina Georgiadou (PAO), Dora Goundoura (AO Ariston Paanias) and Marina Paizi (AS Victoria) will be “present” in Orléans, just like in 2022 when they took third, tenth and 117th place respectively.
Paizi will begin its effort first on Friday in the qualifying round, with the aim of securing qualification for the table of “64” that will be held next Saturday.
In this table, Georgiadou and Goundura have a secured position as No. 3 and No. 4 of the FIE world ranking respectively.
The vast majority of the world’s top swordsmen will be in Orleans and the competition will be very high. From the top 30 of the world ranking, there will be only one absence, the Hungarian Ana Marton (No. 13), while a total of 189 athletes have registered.
It should be noted that on November 13, 2021, Greek fencing experienced one of its greatest successes in Orléans. Despina Georgiadou and Dora Goundura had both reached the grand final and had dueled for the title, with the National Anthem’s return to the podium assured. In the end, Georgiadou won 15-14.
It was only the beginning of the parallel journeys of the two great athletes who since then have starred in almost all international competitions. In fact, at the Tashkent World Cup in February 2023, they repeated the 1-2 in a major international event.
Together with the gymnasts will be the federal coach, Thanasis Delenikas, and the coach of Georgiadou, Christos Sainis.
Women’s Epee World Cup, December 8-9 – Novi Sad (Serbia)
Greece will be represented in the event by Katerina Kontochristopoulou (AOX Aegaleo), Maria Chaldaiou (AXIA), Stavrina Garifallou (AOX Aegaleo), Eleni Ballou (AOX Aegaleo) and Maria Stamos (PAO).
It is the first international event in the major category for women’s epee and is one of the criteria competitions for the selection process of the athlete who will represent our country at the European Olympic qualification tournament in Luxembourg in April.
216 female athletes have entered the competitions and, as in epee, the level is very high.
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