The French swordsman lost by nothing in the final of the World Championships in Cairo against the legend Aron Szilagyi.
So close to happiness. The French Maxime Pianfetti, 23, became vice-world saber champion, losing with a single touch in the final on Monday in Cairo against the Hungarian Aron Szilagyi, triple Olympic champion, who won the first world title at 32. individual in his career. Pianfetti won his first medal in an international competition for seniors. But it was very close that silver became gold on a final touch, at 14-14, that the Frenchman thought he had pocketed. Before the referees decide otherwise.
For his first Worlds, the 25th in the world seemed on cloud nine throughout the day. He had created the surprise in the second round by beating the world number 1, the Korean Junghwan Kim, 15 touches to 13. He had climbed to the final after a half hanging against the Romanian Iulian Teodosiu. The French led 12 touches to 3 before seeing his opponent return to 12-11. He eventually won 15-11. The Tarbais had a similar scare in the quarter-finals to dismiss the Italian Luigi Samele, Olympic vice-champion in Tokyo, 15-11.
The failure of the French swordsmen
He opens the counter of the Blues in these Worlds, the first since those of Budapest three years ago. He also becomes the first French saber to win a world medal since Vincent Anstett, in bronze in 2017. Earlier in the day, Boladé Apithy, who had won bronze at the European Championships last month, had been eliminated at the stage of the round of 16 . Among the women, none of the four French epeeists engaged in the final table managed to reach the quarters. Marie-Florence Candassamy, Auriane Mallo and Joséphine Jacques-André-Coquin stopped in the round of 16, while Lauren Rembi had lost a lap earlier. However, it didn’t go far for Mallo (15-14 against the Italian Rosella Fiamingo) and Jacques-André-Coquin (11-10 against the Chinese Yu Sihan), both of whom were eliminated in sudden death.
