Brunner only stopped in the final: Lucas Malcotti wins the historic Valais final

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Lucas Malcotti (28) achieves his very first World Cup victory in Bern. After several injuries, the Valais native dropped to 165th place in the world rankings. With his great success at the home tournament, he is now reversing the trend. In the semi-finals he clearly defeated world number two Mate Tamas Koch (15:11) and now holds his nerves in the final against his one year younger canton and club colleague Bayard. In the end he wins 15:13.

Recently, the 2021 Olympian had an epidemic year. Problems with the Achilles tendon were followed by pain in the knee and a deep fall in the hierarchy. Malcotti changed fitness trainer and won a strong second-category tournament in early October. That gave confidence, but Saturday’s performance was not to be expected. The Valais resident still had to work his way through the grind of qualifying on Friday. Now it is becoming an issue again for the national team, for which important points in the Olympic qualification are at stake on Sunday.

Final opponent Bayard was also satisfied with a strong tournament performance

Alexis Bayard also shone on the way to the final, not least with his tactical finesse in defensive duels. In the round of 16 he eliminated world number one Davide Di Veroli (11:8), in the quarter-finals the individual Olympic champion Romain Cannone (13:12) and in the semi-finals the team Olympic champion Masaru Yamada (11: 10).

Only in the final, which was a purely Swiss final for the first time at the Bern World Cup tournament, did he fall behind against his clubmate from the Société d’escrime de Sion with two goals from 11:12 to 11:14. . Ranked number 15 in the world, Bayard is now the top-ranked Swiss fencer.

Former team leader Max Heinzer has fallen a bit behind. The Schwyz veteran showed his class in the first main round with a win over number 3 Gergely Siklosi, but then failed to Jian Tong Sito from Singapore.

Also successful for women

From a Swiss perspective, there is also success among women. In Legnano, the Swiss Pauline Brunner (28) can only be stopped in the final. The resident of Neuchâtel had to admit defeat against the American Margherita Guzzi Vincenti (8:15).

Before that, Brunner, at number 46 in the world rankings, had eliminated number 5 Sera Song, among others. Second place in Italy is their best ranking in four years. (SDA)

Source : Blick