Italy proved too strong for GB’s women fencers today, as the title favourites saw off Great Britain 42-14 in the quarter-finals of the fencing team foil at the ExCeL.
GB also lost 43-20 to Poland in the 5-8 classification round.
GB’s Natalia Sheppard, Sophie Troiano and Anna Bentley had defeated Egypt 45-34 to set up the clash with the three medallists in the individual competition, but it wasn’t to be their day as Elisa Di Francisca, Arianna Errigo and Valentina Vezzali – gold, silver and bronze winners respectively – eased through.
Speaking of their targets for the team event, Bentley said: “To start off our goal here was to finish in the top eight so we got the job done under all the pressure.
“We’ve been working all year to finish in the top eight here, that was our goal. Now we’re just trying to finish as high as we can and do ourselves proud.
“We fenced Italy who are the world No.1 and we just wanted to show our best performance against them. But there’s not a weak point to exploit. We did some good actions against them and can take that as a positive. It’s a massive learning curve.
“They’re super experienced. Vezzali is three times Olympic champion and the lowest she’s ever finished is bronze. She just doesn’t make mistakes.
“All the fencers here aren’t any different technically. It’s who can pull it out of the bag on the day.”
Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine
