Italians finish Junior Worlds with gold

Italians Gloria Tocchi and Alessandro Colasanti won the mixed relay – the final event of Junior World Championships in Drzonków. Silver medal was taken by Koreans while bronze went to pair of China.

The last event of the Championships started traditionally with fencing. This discipline was won by Italians Gloria Tocchi and Alessandro Colasanti, who won together 26 bouts. Second place was taken by Polina Matyukhevich and Lev Kolyazov of Russia, who claimed 23 wins, while in third Koreans Sunwoo Kim and Jihun Lee were classified, as they had one victory less than the Russians.

At the swimming pool the best time was achieved by Anastasiya Spas and Vladyslav Mishchenko. Ukrainians with the time of 1:58,39 were 0,42 secs faster than Italians and 2,07 secs faster than Russians. The podium after two events remained unchanged – Tocchi and Colasanti were leading ahead of Russians and Koreans.

The last riding at this Championships finished without achieving the maximum result of 300 points. The best result, only seven penalty points, was made by Isabel Brand and Charles Fernandez of Guatemala. Also Russians had one knockdown, but they also exceeded the time limit by six seconds. It was however enough to overtake Italians in the overall classification. The Koreans kept their third position.

To the combined event Matykhevich started 10 seconds before Tocchi and 24 before Kim. The Italian already at the first shooting caught her rival up and on the second visit on a range she was already a leader. As Tocchi was increasing an advantage over the Russian, the Korean joined the fight. At the exchange Italians were quite far from their rivals, but Jihun Lee, who overtook Lev Kolyazov, started to decrase the difference to Alessandro Colasanti. The Korean however didn’t manage to catch him up and it were Italians who could celebrate the gold medal. Next two place went to Asians as the Koreans were second and Chinese pair of Shuhuan Li and Xiuting Zhong was third.

I am so happy. I want to thank Alessandro who made a very good job. Congratulations to the team, I am so proud of the hard work we are doing. – said Tocchi after the competition.

After the award ceremony President of UIPM Dr h.c Klaus Schormann thanked the organizers, athletes, coaches and volunteers for their support and help and officially closed the Junior World Championships Drzonków, Poland 2014.