Grand prix of Tunis: Georgiadou and Goundura again among the world’s best

January 15, 2024

Megan

Between 11-14 January, two major FIE events at men’s/women’s level took place, the Tunis epee grand prix and the Paris epee world cup, with good performances for the Greek colours.

Men’s/Women’s Epee Grand Prix

January 12-14 | Tunis (Tunisia)

Athenais Mavrikaki opened the curtain for the Greek colors in the pool phase of the qualifying round that took place on Friday 12/1. He recorded two wins and four losses and unfortunately missed the knockout qualification in the details, the difference of blows. He finished 117th in the event out of 149 entries.

Two Greek fencers participated in the main draw of 64 held on Sunday 14/1. Dora Gundura in her first match for the round of 32 ticket was defeated by the 26-year-old French Malina Vogsavadi (FIE No88) 15-9 in a match of many borderline stages. The Greek athlete of Thanasis Delenika took the 33rd place in the event, but remains at No. 2 in the world ranking with 214 points.

Despina Georgiadou, on the other hand, did her duty in the first round against Summer Fei Shit from Hong Kong (FIE No48), whom she defeated with a score of 15-7, while in the round of 32 that followed she also eliminated the Egyptian Nada Hafez ( FIE No. 41) with 15-8. To enter the quarter-finals, she fought against the Hungarian Luka Suks (FIE No65) who had earlier eliminated the former No1 of the world, Azera Ana Basta, 15-14. After a difficult match, the Greek came out victorious with 15-13 and advanced to the best eight.

In the crucial match for entering the podium, she faced the Spanish Luthia Martin-Portuguese (FIE No7) in a repeat of last year’s final of the same event, in which the Greek was the winner. Georgiadou fought hard to get into the top four, but this time the Spaniard took the victory and the rematch with 15-11 and then went on to win the gold medal. The Greek athlete of Christos Saini and Christian Bauer finally took 6th place in the event and added 21 valuable points for the hunt for Olympic qualification, while remaining in 5th place in the world ranking with 166 points.

With the Tunis grand prix, both athletes completed seven races out of ten in total that will determine their ranking at the end of the Olympic qualifying period on April 1st. We remind you that the individual scores from the continental and world championships plus the five best results between the grand prix, world cups and satellite races take part in the calculation of the world ranking score. At the moment, Gundura has the lead in the Olympic ranking between the two Greek women with 158 points against Georgiadou’s 130. The next stop for the Greek women will be the Lima world cup in Peru in mid-February (9-11/2).

It should be noted that at the Tunis grand prix we had a double Greek presence in the refereeing with the international referees Andreas Doubis and Vangelis Boukas. In fact, Doubis had the honor of refereeing the women’s final between the Spanish Luthia Martin Portuguese and the Turkish Nisanur Erbil. He has already received an invitation from the FIE to referee this summer and at the Olympic Games in Paris.

The positions of Greek women in Tunis:

6th – Despina Georgiadou (PAO)

33rd – Dora Goundura (AO Ariston Peanias)

117th – Athenais Mavrikakis (AO Aspida)

Men’s/Women’s Swordsmanship World Cup

January 11-14 | Paris, France)

The curtain in the City of Light opened on Thursday 11/1 with three Greek swordsmen. Ilias Giannos Rizos, Nikos Kontochristopoulos and Giorgos Manolikas competed in the men’s singles qualifying round pool stage and recorded 1/5, 1/5 and 0/6 wins/losses respectively, results that were not enough to secure them the qualification to the main board of the first day. They ranked 250th, 262nd and 281st respectively out of 290 athletes.

Five Greek women competed in the pool phase of the women’s individual qualifying round that followed on Friday 12/1. Maria Stamos went 3/3 W/L and moved directly to the 128 board, while Katerina Kontochristopoulou, Maria Chaldaiou and Eleni Ballou went 2/4 W/L and qualified for the 256 board. The one win she scored Stavrina Garifallou in six games did not allow her to continue in the top event of the world for the weapon. She took 205th place among 229 female athletes.

In the qualifying board of 256, Maria Chaldaiou and Eleni Ballou were left out. Ballou was defeated 15-14 by Hong Kong’s Wong and Chaldeaou was defeated 15-9 by Roumana Kalugareanu to rank 171st and 178th respectively. With 15-4, Katerina Kontochristopoulou passed the obstacle of the Swede Mikulak and qualified for the best 128. In the next round, the Polish Martina Jelinska was the one who stopped the good course of Maria Stamos with 15-8. The Greek woman took 139th place overall in an event of the highest level.

Kontochristopoulou, on the other hand, took her place on the track against Russia’s Marta Martianova, an Olympic gold medalist in Tokyo in the team epee and a silver and a bronze in grand prix. The match reached 14-14 and with great composure the Greek fencer made it 15-14 and passed to the best 64 of the qualifying round.

In the match that punched the ticket to the main draw of 64 she eliminated China’s Yueting Wang (FIE No78) 15-12 and gave herself another day of competition. The Greek fencer of AOX Aegaleo on Saturday 13/1 fought her battle in the main board of 64 against the Italian Alice Volpi (FIE No2) but she did not manage to make the big breakthrough. She started the match numb with the score reaching 9-2 in favor of the Italian. She then found a rhythm and was able to close the gap to 14-8, but then the Italian ended the match with the final score reading 15-8.

It is the seventh time the 26-year-old has reached the main draw of a major world-class women’s event, and she has achieved it for the third season in a row. The first was eight years earlier, when at the 2015 women’s world cup in Saint-Maur, France, she again finished 64th. In the 2016-2017 season he had won the 48th place in the Toberbischofheim world cup in Germany, in the 2017-2018 season the 43rd place in the Algiers world cup, in the 2021-2022 season the 56th place again in the Toberbischofheim world cup in Germany and the season 2022-2023 the 56th place in the Plovdiv world cup in Bulgaria. Also, in the 2017 world championships in Leipzig, Germany, he finished 39th.

She stated the following about her journey in Paris:

“I feel very happy about my performance in these games. Especially for yesterday, I started quite stressed in the pool as a result of which I needed three knockouts to qualify. In the first knockout with the Swede I managed to get on the scoreboard at 128. Then with the Russian Martianova who was No. 3 on the scoreboard and we have been competing together since the juniors, I entered scared. We have played together many times and as they know each other’s game, she wanted more concentration to find a way to surprise her and open her up. At the beginning I was losing 6-1 but then I turned the score around with the help of Nikos and until the final 15-14 it was a very strong match that filled me with confidence for the next one with the Chinese woman. I entered even more determined to pass and I succeeded.”

Her coach, Nikos Kontochristopoulos, emphasized for his part:

“Katerina from yesterday showed a continuous improvement both tactically and mentally throughout the day and that’s why we reached the coveted qualification on the board of 64. I am very proud of her effort. Today with Volpi there were definitely some tactical mistakes but we keep the positive look and determination against a perennially excellent athlete. We look forward to the next match.”

In parallel with the pan-Hellenic ranking this year’s competition season, another internal ranking is in force regarding the selection of the athletes who will represent our country in the European Olympic qualification tournament in Luxembourg, the event that will give the last Olympic tickets for the Paris. With her appearance in Paris, Kontochristopoulou increased her points lead, while two races remain to finalize the ranking, the grand prix in Turin (9-11/2) and the Panhellenic championship (30-31/3). We remind you that in 2016 Kontochristopoulou secured her participation in the Rio Olympic Games from the corresponding event. See the provisional women’s epee standings after five criterium events below:

Provisional ranking:

1. Katerina Kontochristopoulou (AOX Aigaleo) – 435b

2. Maria Chaldaiou (VALUE) – 325b

3. Eleni Ballou (AOX Aegaleo) – 300b

4. Stavrina Garifallou (AOX Aigaleo) – 285b

5. Maria Stamos (PAO) – 275b

6. Vasiliki Mekra (AOX Aigaleo) – 225b

On the third and last day of the event, the National Women’s Epee Team continued their efforts in the top competitions of the world. After the world cup in Novi Sad in December, Katerina Kontochristopoulou, Maria Chaldaiou, Eleni Balou and Stavrina Garifallou competed on Sunday 14/1 in the team and in Paris. In the round of 32, they were defeated by the Korean team 42-33 and could not continue in the top 16, while they ranked 23rd in the world.

It should be noted, however, that until the middle of the match Greece was in front of the score with 26-23 and fought hard for its first round of 16 at the world level. Next to the athletes were the coaches Kostas Adassis and Nikos Kontochristopoulos.

Here are the overall results from Paris:

The positions of the Greeks:

250th – Ilias Giannos-Rizos (AOX Aigaleo)

262nd – Nikos Kontochristopoulos (AOX Aigaleo)

281st – Giorgos Manolikas (VALUE)

The positions of the Greek women:

64th – Katerina Kontochristopoulou (AOX Aigaleo)

139th – Maria Stamos (PAO)

171st – Eleni Ballou (AOX Aegaleo)

178th – Maria Chaldaiou (VALUE)

205th – Stavrina Garifallou (AOX Aigaleo)

23rd – Women’s National Epee Sword Team

(Kontochristopoulos, Chaldaios, Garifallos, Ballos)

Megan

I am currently a news writer for News Bulletin247 where I mostly cover sports news. I have always been interested in writing and it is something I am very passionate about. In my spare time, I enjoy reading and spending time with my family and friends.