Italy claim fencing gold in team foil
The Olympic fencing competition ended last night as it started the week before with Italy striking gold, this time in the men’s team foil. And how sweet it was for Andrea Baldini, the 26-year-old dropped from their squad in Beijing after failing a drug...
The Olympic fencing competition ended last night as it started the week before with Italy striking gold, this time in the men’s team foil. And how sweet it was for Andrea Baldini, the 26-year-old dropped from their squad in Beijing after failing a drug test.
Baldini, completely exonerated a year later, had lost the bronze medal match in the individual event, but took the favourites to a 45-39 victory in the final over plucky seventh seeds Japan.
Germany captured bronze by easily beating the United States 45-27.
The Italians had been given a tough time in the quarter-finals by hosts Great Britain, but Baldini closed out the win.
He, reigning world champion Andrea Cassara and Giorgio Avola, replacing Valerio Aspromonte during their semi-final, had their nerve tested by Japan as well.
It was 36-36 in the eighth of the nine bouts, but Cassara showed his class against substitute Suguru Awaji and Yuki Ota, like Richard Kruse earlier, could not turn things round against Baldini.
Cassara and Aspromonte were the top two seeds for the individual events, but both went out in the last eight and Baldini’s defeat meant they had been put in the shade by their women’s foil side.
The men’s success yesterday meant that Italy outscored South Korea and China with three golds to their two each and with seven medals to Korea’s six remain the main power in the sport.
Medals table
| Country | G | S | B | Tot. |
| China | 30 | 17 | 14 | 61 |
| United States | 28 | 14 | 18 | 60 |
| Great Britain | 16 | 11 | 10 | 37 |
| South Korea | 10 | 4 | 6 | 20 |
| France | 8 | 8 | 9 | 25 |
| Italy | 6 | 5 | 3 | 14 |
| Kazakhstan | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Germany | 5 | 10 | 7 | 22 |
| Russia | 4 | 16 | 15 | 35 |
| Hungary | 4 | 1 | 3 | 8 |
| North Korea | 4 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| Netherlands | 3 | 1 | 4 | 8 |
| South Africa | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| New Zealand | 3 | 0 | 4 | 7 |
| Japan | 2 | 12 | 13 | 27 |
| Denmark | 2 | 4 | 2 | 8 |
| Romania | 2 | 4 | 2 | 8 |
| Belarus | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 |
| Cuba | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| Jamaica | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Poland | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Ukraine | 2 | 0 | 5 | 7 |
| Ethiopia | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Australia | 1 | 12 | 7 | 20 |
| Canada | 1 | 3 | 6 | 10 |
| Czech Republic | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
| Sweden | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| Kenya | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
| Brazil | 1 | 1 | 5 | 7 |
| Slovenia | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Croatia | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Switzerland | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Iran | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Lithuania | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Georgia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Venezuela | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Mexico | 0 | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| Colombia | 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| Spain | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Slovakia | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| Azerbaijan | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| India | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Armenia | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Belgium | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Indonesia | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Mongolia | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Norway | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Serbia | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Egypt | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Guatemala | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Malaysia | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Thailand | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Taipei | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Greece | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Moldova | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Argentina | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Hong Kong | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Qatar | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Singapore | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Tunisia | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Uzbekistan | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Today’s finals
Athletics
Women’s pole vault, women’s shot put, men’s 400m hurdles, women’s 3,000m steeplechase, men’s 400m.
Track Cycling
Men’s sprint.
Equestrian
Jumping Team.
Gymnastics
Men’s rings, women’s uneven bars, men’s vault.
Shooting
50m rifle three positions men, Trap men.
Sailing
Women’s Laser, men’s Laser.
Weightlifting
105kg men.
Wrestling
60kg, 84kg, 120kg.
Results
Basketball (women)
Angola vs Czech Rep. 47-82; China vs USA 66-114; Croatia vs Turkey 65-70; France vs Russia 65-54; Canada vs Australia 63-72.
Diving (women)
3m Springboard final: 1. Wu Minxia (CHN), 2. He Zi (CHN), 3. Laura Sanchez Soto (MEX).
Hockey (men)
N. Zealand vs Belgium 1-1; Pakistan vs S. Africa 5-4; India vs S. Korea 1-4; Holland vs Germany 3-1; GB vs Australia 3-3.
Volleyball (women)
Algeria vs Dominican Rep. 0-3; China vs S. Korea 3-2; GB vs Japan 0-3; Italy vs Russia 2-3; USA vs Turkey 3-0.
Waterpolo (women)
QFs: USA vs Italy 9-6; China vs Australia 18-20 (pens); Hungary vs Russia 11-10; Spain vs GB 9-7.