#10 St Maur Women's Foil World Cup 2019 Final Highlights

The St. Maur final featured two Italian foilists as Alicia Volpi, the reigning European bronze medallist and 2018 world champion, took on Martina Battini, who won her last major title at the Shanghai Grand Prix earlier in the year. These two have met five times at senior internationals, with Volpi holding a 4-1 head-to-head record. Geoff Buchancz talks us through their sixth competitive meet. Given how well these two fencers knew each other, we expected a cautious start, with neither wanting to concede too much ground. Volpi continued to keep the distance close in order to negate Battini's major weapon, her long attack. Battini adapted, opening the distance behind her and starting her actions off the blade to clearly establish the right of way. The Italian has a habit of having this notion of distance, it's something they have in them, it's in their DNA. Battini's first attack, Volpi who defended, who re-attacked and Battini who had time to defend again in order to finally hit her opponent. Battini is coming back a bit. Battini leveled the score inside the last minute of the first period. But it was Volpi's turn to change the game. She closed the distance even more and took a solid lead into the break. And it didn't take her long to finish the job off in the second period. She's got the ball, at the end of her path. Alicée Volpi, a touch and she gets the title here. And it's done, Alicée Volpi has been released. So Alicée Volpi took the 2019 Saint-Malo World Cup title, the second of her career. Join us next time as we take a look back at the Tokyo Men's Foil World Cup.