The best Bulgarian fencer, Yoana Ilieva, won a gold medal at the Women's Sabre World Cup in Plovdiv. In the final of the competition in the "Kolodruma" hall she prevailed with 15:13 points over the Italian Chiara Mormille and thus for the first time in history climbed to the highest step of the honorable ladder in a World Cup competition.
In the final duel, Mormille, who was the tenth seed, led with 10:8, but Ilieva showed character and turned it around to 14:13, then with a decisive attack she achieved the final success.
So far, the Bulgarian had two bronze medals in tournaments of a similar rank.
On her way to gold, Ilieva was uncompromising and achieved a decisive victory in every match. She started with a success with 15:5 over the Chinese Yun Chen, and in the next round she also dealt with the resistance of Kelly Lusignier from France with 15:11. In the round of 16, Ilieva defeated Sugar Batay from Hungary 15:8.
In the quarterfinals, another convincing success followed - over the Chinese Xinyu Zhang 15:10, and in the battle for a place in the final, the best Bulgarian sabre fencer left no chance for the representative of Greece - Despina Iorgiadou, defeating her 15:8.
The other Bulgarian in the tournament eliminations - Olga Khramova, reached the round of 16 of the tournament. In the first two rounds, she successively overcame the resistance of Ying Fu (China) 15:12 and Hyeon Jeong (Republic of Korea) 15:14. In the round of 16, Khramova led Japan's Yuina Kaneko 13:11, but she suffered a setback and was eliminated from the competition.
The tournament features 175 female fencers from 32 countries, including eight from the top 10 in the world rankings.
On Sunday, the World Cup in Plovdiv continues with the men's and women's sabre team competitions, with expectations once again for an excellent performance from the Bulgarian female fencers.