1989 World Fencing Championships

1989 World Championships in Fencing
Host city	Denver, United States
Date(s)	July 5–15
← 1988 Orléans 1990 Lyon →

The 1989 World Fencing Championships were held in Denver, United States from July 5 to July 15.^{[citation needed]}

Overview[]

The United States applied to organise World Fencing Championships as soon as the 1986 congress of the International Fencing Federation (FIE). They maintained their request the year after, suggesting Cleveland or Indianapolis as hosts. The latter was chosen, but withdrew three months before the event. Denver put itself forward as replacement.^[1]

The competition was marred by several incidents involving the directoire technique. For instance, Bulgaria's men sabre team unknowingly arrived late at their quarter-final match against Germany, as the official timetable had been changed along the way; Germany requested and obtained the Bulgarians' disqualification.^[1]

The SSSR and Germany dominated the championships, especially in foil and sabre. Épée saw several surprises, notably the victory of Spain's Manuel Pereira, who had never placed in the Top 8 of an international tournament before, and who never reached that level again.^[1] Women's épée was still a young weapon, allowed by the FIE at the 1988 World Criterium as a demonstration event. It made its first official apparition in Denver. An outsider, Switzerland's , prevailed over Germany's and Italy's Annalisa Coltorti, while the women's team event saw the beginning of the Hungarian domination.

Medal table[]

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Soviet Union (URS)	4	1	1	6
2	West Germany (FRG)	2	5	2	9
3	Italy (ITA)	1	2	3	6
4	Switzerland (SUI)	1	0	1	2
5	Hungary (HUN)	1	0	0	1
	Spain (ESP)	1	0	0	1
7	France (FRA)	0	1	2	3
8	Poland (POL)	0	1	0	1
9	Cuba (CUB)	0	0	1	1
Totals (9 nations)		10	10	10	30

Medal summary[]

Men's events[]

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Individual Épée	Manuel Pereira (ESP)	Sandro Cuomo (ITA)	Pavel Kolobkov (URS)
Individual Foil	Alexander Koch (FRG)	Philippe Omnès (FRA)	Mauro Numa (ITA)
Individual Sabre	Grigory Kiriyenko (URS)	(POL)	Felix Becker (FRG)
Team Épée	Italy Sandro Cuomo Angelo Mazzoni Stefano Pantano Sandro Resegotti	West Germany Elmar Borrmann Robert Felisiak Thomas Gerull Günter Jauch	Cuba Carlos Pedroso
Team Foil	Soviet Union Alexandr Romankov Sergei Golubitsky Ilgar Mammadov Boris Koretsky Dmitriy Shevchenko	West Germany Thorsten Weidner Matthias Gey Thomas Endres Alexander Koch	France Laurent Bel Philippe Omnès Patrice Lhôtellier
Team Sabre	Soviet Union Grigory Kiriyenko Andrey Alshan Sergey Koryashkin Sergey Mindirgasov	West Germany Frank Bleckmann Felix Becker Jürgen Nolte Jörg Kempenich	France Jean-François Lamour Philippe Delrieu Franck Ducheix Pierre Guichot Jean-Philippe Daurelle

Women's events[]

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Individual Épée	(SUI)	(FRG)	Annalisa Coltorti (ITA)
Individual Foil	Olga Velichko (URS)	Anja Fichtel (FRG)	Zita Funkenhauser (FRG)
Team Épée	Hungary Gyöngyi Szalay Mariann Horváth Zsuzsanna Szőcs	Italy Annalisa Coltorti Laura Chiesa Elisa Uga Laura Chiesa	Switzerland Gianna Bürki
Team Foil	West Germany Anja Fichtel Sabine Bau Zita Funkenhauser Anette Klug Christiane Weber	Soviet Union Olga Velichko Tatyana Sadovskaya Yelena Grishina Yelena Glikina	Italy Diana Bianchedi Giovanna Trillini Margherita Zalaffi

References[]

• FIE Results