On the second day of competition at the World Fencing Championships in Hong Kong, Kazakhstan's fencers performed successfully. A quartet of epee fencers — Ruslan Kurbanov, Yerlik Sertay, Kirill Prokhodov and Vadim Sharlaimov — along with a trio of sabre fencers — Anastasiya Gulik, Aigerim Sarybay and Karina Dospay — cleared the qualification hurdles and will vie for medals on July 26, reports infohub.kz.
The only Kazakh athlete to finish her individual event was Kaisha Zhanibek. She lost to Ukraine's Daria Gontsova 6-15 in the round of 64 and finished 77th.
All three sabre fencers advanced through the group stage. Anastasiya Gulik then beat Italy's Claudia Rotili 15-14, Karina Dospay defeated Hong Kong's Wing Kiu Chu 15-13, and Aigerim Sarybay eliminated China's Zhaoyi Wei 15-11.
Among the epee fencers, all four kept their medal hopes alive. Vadim Sharlaimov won his group bouts and then beat India's Shaurya Ashwini 15-7 and Sweden's Kelly Christopher 12-11. Kirill Prokhodov defeated Uzbekistan's Javokhirbek Nurmatov 9-8 and Egypt's Mahmoud El-Said 15-9. Ruslan Kurbanov and Yerlik Sertay, thanks to high rankings, will start the playoffs from the round of 32.
At the previous world championship in Tbilisi, Kurbanov placed in the top 10 individually, and Kazakhstan's epee team won bronze.
The current championship is the 71st edition. The first such competition was held in 1921. In Hong Kong, 12 sets of medals will be awarded in individual and team disciplines (epee, foil, sabre) for men and women.
The tournament's prize fund is $1.02 million. The individual winner receives $40,000, the silver medalist $20,000, and the bronze medalist $10,000. In the team events, gold brings $50,000, silver $25,000, and bronze $15,000.
The preliminary bouts for foil and women's epee took place the day before, and tomorrow is the first competition day for men's sabre and women's foil.