The U20 world cups in Udine and Budapest have concluded, with Giovani standing out from the Greek swords

Udine, Italy hosted the U20 World Cups in Dueling Sword (4-5/1) and Epee (6-7/1), while Budapest, Hungary hosted the U20 World Cup in Epee (6-7/1) . In total Greece was represented by 13 young men and 16 young women (U20) in all three weapons.

In the individual games, Artemios Tzovanis (AOX Aegaleo) stood out, who in the practice sword in Udine reached the top of 16 and took 14th place in the world in his first year in the category. Another three fencers, Stavrina Garifallou (AOX Aigaleo) in the exercise sword and Lilian Kefala Tsorou (LO Varis) and Andriana Theodoropoulou (AO Ariston Paanias) in the dueling sword made it to the board of 64.

14th – practice sword – Artemios Tzovanis (AOX Aigaleo)

53rd – dueling sword – Lilian Kefala Tsorou (LO Varis)

56th – sword practice – Stavrina Garifallou (AOX Aigaleo)

63rd – dueling sword – Andriana Theodoropoulou (AO Ariston Paanias)

Nine more Greek men and women fencers reached the table of 128 in all three weapons. It is worth mentioning that three of them, Alina Kouroussi, Thomas-Avraam Grollios and Nikos Pergamalis still belong to the youngest age category, that of teenagers and young adults (U17).

75th – dueling sword – Ariadne Naskari (AO Ariston Paanias)

76th – swords – Alina Kouroussi (AO Apollon Vrilissio)

78th – practice sword – Dimitris Gikas (VALUE)

86th – swords – Thomas-Avraam Grollios (Aris Thessaloniki)

102nd – sword exercise – Eleni Ballou (AOX Aigaleo)

110th – swords – Marilena Gazepidis (OSFP)

115th – swords – Vassilis Predaris (AO Ariston Peanias)

123rd – swords – Nikos Pergamalis (AO Aspida)

125th – swords – Konstantina Kefala (AO Ariston Peanias)

In the team games of the three weapons, Greece participated with five National teams (we did not participate only in the young women’s practice sword), of which the women’s teams stood out in the dueling sword and the epee, which were placed among the 16 best teams in the world.

13th Place – Junior Women’s Duel Sword National

(Kefala Tsorou, Theodoropoulou, Naskari)

14th place – Junior Women’s National Epee

(Kourousi, Gazepidis, Kefalas)

World Junior Men’s/Young Women’s Duel Sword Cup (U20)

January 4-5 | Udine (Italy)

In the junior men’s pool, Panagiotis Theodoropoulos (AO Ariston Paianas) scored 4/2 wins/losses, Konstantinos Karambasis (AO Ariston Paanias) scored 3/3 wins/losses and Giorgos Alestas (AOFIPS Irida) scored 2/4 wins/losses defeats resulting in all three going to the knockout phase.

In the round of 256, Panagiotis Theodoropoulos was defeated 15-7 by Poland’s Wojciech Zitsniak, Konstantinos Karabasis was defeated 15-12 by France’s Tiram Traore Carr and Giorgos Alestas was defeated 15-11 by Switzerland’s Julian Nicolas Squieri. The Greeks took 131st, 150th and 187th place respectively among 272 athletes.

In the young women’s pool, Ariadni Naskari (AO Ariston Paanias) scored 5/1 wins/losses, Lilian Kefala Tsorou (LO Varis) scored 4/2 wins/losses and Andriana Theodoropoulou scored 2/3 wins/losses. All three gymnasts comfortably passed the knockout stage. Naskari and Kefala-Tsorou, due to their statistics in the pools, qualified directly to the 128 board, while Theodoropoulou had to go through the round of 256, in which she won 15-5 against Janine Hanspach from Paraguay and she also qualified in the 128 best.

In the knockouts for the tickets of the round of 64, Ariadni Naskari was defeated 15-14 by the Italian Asia Vitali and ended her presence with the 75th place. On the contrary, Lilian Kefala Tsorou prevailed over the Italian Mariaclotilde Andosini with 15-13 and Andriana Theodoropoulou prevailed with 15-14 against the No. 13 in the world, El Meihui Ko from Singapore. In the battle to enter the top 32, they were defeated by the Romanian Emma Sod with 15-3 and the Spanish Silvia Gomet Lopez with 14-11 respectively. Among 215 female athletes, Kefala Tsorou took 53rd place and Theodoropoulou 63rd.

The positions of the Greeks:

131st – Panagiotis Theodoropoulos (AO Ariston Paanias)

150th – Konstantinos Karabasis (AO Ariston Peanias)

187th – Giorgos Alestas (AOFIPS Irida)

The positions of the Greek women:

53rd – Lilian Kefala Tsorou (LO Varis)

63rd – Andriana Theodoropoulou (AO Ariston Peanias)

75th – Ariadni Naskari (AO Ariston Peanias)

The world cup concluded on Friday 5/1 with the group games for the young men and young women. After the good performances in the individual, Greece participated with two teams on the second day and the young women’s team stood out.

The young men’s team was the one that started first on the track with Panagiotis Theodoropoulos, Konstantinos Karambasis and Giorgos Alestas but was defeated in the first match on the board of 32 by the Estonian team with 45-28. He finished 27th overall.

In the board of 32 of the young women’s team, Lilian Kefala Tsorou, Adriana Theodoropoulou and Ariadni Naskari eliminated the strong Romanian team with 45-42 and secured a place in the top 16. They were then beaten 45-33 by Hungary to enter the round of 8 and the 9-16 seeding matches began with a 45-37 loss to China. They finished their presence with two wins against Great Britain 45-39 and against Bulgaria 45-39 to finish 13th out of 20 teams, a very good performance for the country in the history of the U20 world cups. The sportsmen and women were accompanied by the coach Giorgos Passas.

The results of the group games of Greece:

13th Place – Junior Women’s Duel Sword National

(Kefala Tsorou, Theodoropoulou, Naskari)

27th place – Junior Men’s Duel Sword National

(Theodoropoulos, Karabasis, Alestas)