Artemios Tzovanis won the bronze medal in the individual youth men’s event and the trio of Tsovani, Konstantinos Karabasis and Panagiotis Theodoropoulos won the bronze medal in the team event at the World Youth Duel Sword Cup in Costa Rica, two particularly important medals for Greek fencing and their future course.
Together with their coach, Giorgos Passas, the trio of AO Ariston Peanias left at the end of October for a three-week trip with the aim of distinguishing themselves at the two U20 World Cups in El Salvador and Costa Rica.
World Youth Duel Sword Cup (U20)
San Jose (Costa Rica) | 16-17/11
Last Saturday, the young men’s individual event took place. In the pool stage, Konstantinos Karabasis was undefeated with 5 wins, Artemios Tzovanis scored 5 wins and 1 loss and Panagiotis Theodoropoulos scored 4 wins and 1 loss. The three Greeks passed the board of “64” without a fight and in the round of “32” they passed the obstacles of Lisandro Antonio Quesada from El Salvador (15-11), the Mexican Daniel Ruak Bravo (15-4) and the Chilean Andres Grageda (15-9) respectively.
In the round of 16, Karabasis was defeated 15-7 by the Panamanian Isaac Dorati and Theodoropoulos was defeated 13-11 by the British Cantor Butiman. The two Greeks finished tenth and 15th respectively, with Theodoropoulos in the top 16 for the second consecutive event after finishing 14th at the World Cup in San Salvador.
Giovanis, on the other hand, defeated the Indian Sukwinterpal Singh Tour 15-9 and in the crucial battle of the quarter-finals he prevailed against the German Stange 15-11 and secured his rise to the world podium. In the semi-final against the Panamanian Isaac Dorati to qualify for the final, the Greek was defeated 15-7.
The athlete of Giorgos Passas won a great bronze medal, despite having trained less than five months in the dueling sword, after a very good run in the age categories of the exercise sword.
The last time a Greek swordsman won an individual medal at the U20 world cup was 21 years ago, when Alexandros Kontogiannis won the bronze in Budapest, while a year earlier, in 2002, Giorgos Ambalov won the same medal in Tauberbischofsheim, Germany.
It should be noted that the last international medal of Greek fencing in the U20 category was Maria Chaldaiou’s bronze medal in the European U20 Championship for young women’s epee in 2020.
With their appearances in the Cups of El Salvador and Costa Rica the three Greeks had a big rise in the world ranking of young men’s dueling swords. Tzovanis is now at No. 42 with 24b, Theodoropoulos at No. 48 with 21.25b and Karambasis at No. 85 with 12b.
The positions of the Greeks:
3rd – Artemios Tzovanis (AO Ariston Peanias) – bronze medal
10th – Konstantinos Karabasis (AO Ariston Peanias)
15th – Panagiotis Theodoropoulos (AO Ariston Paanias)
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