Alexey Yakimenko captures third consecutive gold medal at New York World Cup in Men’s Sabre
After clinching gold medals in Madrid and Warsaw, Russian Alexey Yakimenko shinned once again at 2011 New York World Cup in Men’s Sabre that concluded on June 26, at New York in United States. Alexey defeated the German Nicolas Limbach to win the gold medal.
Italian Giampiero Pastore was successful in getting a bronze medal in the competition. A total of 183 fencers from nineteen countries participated in the competition. 35 sabre fencers participated from United States. Pool matches took place on June 25 and
then the direct elimination round started. Yakimenko started with the pool matches and remained victorious in all the bouts.
The consistent and nice performance in the competition gave him an automatic bye to the table of 64. Starting as the number one seed in the competition, he faced the Italian, Luca Pignotti, in the table of 64. Luca was eliminated by Yakimenko with a score
of 15-5. Chinese Wei He and Yakimenko were put into a fight in the table of 32. Yakimenko advanced to the next level after winning his bout from Wei with 15-8 touches. To qualify for the quarter-final, Yakimenko defeated Dmitri Lapkes from Italy with a 15-12
score-line.
Romanian Gelu Florin Zalomir got the shot against Yakimenko in the quarter-final round. Yakimenko amazingly dropped him with a loss of only six touches against himself, 15-6. In the semi-final, he defeated the Korean, Bon Gil Gu, with a score of 15-7 to
advance into the final round of the competition.
In the final bout, Yakimenko confidently defeated his closest pursuer, German Nicolas Limbach, in the fight for the World Cup. He defeated Limbach with six-point lead of 15-9 score-line and become the only athlete who remained unbeated in the competition.
Over the past year, Yakimenko has participated in seven World Cups, World and European championships and consistently come out at least the quarter-finals, winning in these competitions, four wins and two more coming third.
Not only the Russian male fencer was able to capture the gold medal, but the Russian women fencer, Sophia Velikaia, also conquered the gold medal in New York Women’s Sabre World Cup.
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