Fencing: With Sarah Noutcha crowned European sabre champion, the future is assured for the French team

The reservoir of talent in French women's sabre seems inexhaustible. On Sunday, June 15, Sarah Noutcha, ranked ^4th in the world, became the European sabre champion in Genoa. In the final (15-6), she beat the Ukrainian Alina Komashchuk ( ^24th ), Olympic team champion at the Paris Olympic Games.

The 25-year-old from Strasbourg won her first individual title in a major championship after team medals, gold at Euro 2022 in Antalya (Turkey) and silver at the 2022 World Championships in Cairo. This was a crowning achievement for Noutcha, who underwent knee surgery in 2022 and had struggled to return to her best in recent years.

In the semi-finals, the Frenchwoman beat the Hungarian Sugar Katinka Battai ( ^19th ) 15 touches to 9, after having eliminated the Bulgarian Yoana Ilieva (15-10) in the quarter-finals, who defeated Sara Balzer, silver medalist at the Paris Olympic Games. The other Strasbourg player, 30 years old, was chasing a first European champion title in the individual event, but she lost 15-11 in the last 16 against Ilieva, bronze medalist in the individual event at the 2023 World Championships in Milan and ^3rd in the world.

Last season, Balzer missed the European Championships due to back pain, shortly before becoming Olympic runner-up at the Grand Palais after losing to her compatriot Manon Apithy-Brunet, who was absent from the Genoa city due to maternity leave.

In the men's competition, the French epee fencers were not very successful. Luidgi Midelton, ranked ^12th in the world and the European title holder, was eliminated at the start (15-14) by the Polish Wojciech Lubieniecki, ranked a modest ^145th . Alexandre Bardenet, recent winner of the Monal Challenge, lost in the last 16 against the Russian Egor Lomaga (15-14).

At the end of the second day of the European Championships, France dominates the medal standings, with three titles already, following those won on Saturday by foil fencer Eva Loncheray and sabre fencer Rémi Garrigue. On Monday, the women's épée and men's foil events will take place, with Marie-Florence Candassamy, the 2023 world champion and Olympic team runner-up in Paris, among others.