Luca Curatoli's individual performance in the men's saber World Cup in Budapest turns silver. The Neapolitan saber of the Fiamme Oro performed a sumptuous performance and returns to the podium one year and three months after silver in the Grand Prix of Orleans. He stops at the foot of the podium, for just one hit, Luigi Samele's match in turn marked by great continuity of performance. Luca Curatoli's day began with a 15-13 success over the expert French Lambert before the large victory in the round of 32 over the Thai Srinualnad 15-7. In the round of 16 a great match saw the policeman from Campania beat the world number 1, the Georgian Bazadze, 15-12. Same result for Curatoli against the German Szabo in the quarter-finals, a success that allowed Luca to have the certainty of returning to the podium. In the semi-final, a match masterfully conducted by the Italian allowed him to dominate the Iranian Pakdaman 15-5 and reach the last act.
In the final, after a point-to-point start, the host Andras Szatmari prevailed and beat the player from Campania 15-10. A silver medal that gives a lot of confidence to Luca Curatoli, at the 17th podium in his career between the World Cup and Grand Prix. Stop at the foot of the podium for Luigi Samele. The Fiamme Gialle player from Foggia (7th place) beat the Frenchman Bibi 15-13 and the Hungarian Rabb 15-12 in the first two matches. In the round of 16, in the rematch of the final of the recent Luxardo Trophy in Padua, the Italian champion took revenge on the American Heathcock 15-11, thus entering the “top 8”. Only the last thrust prevented Samele from achieving his third podium of the season in the Cup. Good performance also by Giovanni Repetti, 14th, who beat the three-time Olympic champion Aaron Szilagyi in the round of 32 and remained outside the top eight by just one hit. So are the other Italians competing today: 19 Dario Cavaliere, 23 Enrico Berrè, 38 Michele Gallo, 44 Pietro Torre. Having archived today's individual test with satisfaction, now all Italy's attention is turned to tomorrow's team competition, the highlight of the men's saber World Cup stage in Budapest, the last of the Olympic Qualifications. It is the only specialty in which Italian fencing is still chasing the pass (already detached in all the other “weapons”) for Paris 2024. The team of coach Nicola Zanotti, currently in fifth place in the ranking and the best formation immediately behind the ” top 4″ in the world and ahead of Germany, he will line up with Luigi Samele, Luca Curatoli, Michele Gallo and Pietro Torre.
In tomorrow's match the Italian sabers will rightfully skip the first round, making their debut in the round of 16, with an appeal on the platform at 1pm, against the winner of the China-India match. The United States could then be in the Azzurri's channel. The Germans, however, will start at 12pm against one of Saudi Arabia and Canada, and in their quadrant of the scoreboard the probable opponent in the quarterfinals is France.