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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, March 09, 2004

Dong Zhaozhi snatches individual gold at Shanghai foil GP

China's veteran fencer Dong Zhaozhi wrapped up his winning run by lifting the men's individual title, beating 9th-seeded Ralf Bissdorf of Germany 15-12 on the third and final day of FIE Grand Prix Foil tournament in Shanghai on Mar. 8.


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Chinese fencer Dong Zhaozhi (L)


China's veteran fencer Dong Zhaozhi wrapped up his winning run by lifting the men's individual title, beating 9th-seeded Ralf Bissdorf of Germany 15-12 on the third and final day of FIE Grand Prix Foil tournament in Shanghai on Mar. 8.

It's the first time for Dong since the 2000 Olympics to win a World Cup grand A tournament after he pocketed the team silver in last year's World Fencing Championships, and two golds at the Universiad in 2001 and 2003.

The 31-year-old Dong, who tasted a flavor of Olympic final four years ago, made short work of Bissdorf, sealing the final in one minute and 44 seconds as the native of south China's Guangdong province played a much more authoritative game than his 10-ranked opponent, controlling the piste with his speedy, crafty attack and skillful parry.

A dazzling hit came in the middle of the clash, as the left-handed Dong lured Bissdorf to make a semicircular parry, and then thrust with the sword tip rushing from left to right to hit the German's left oxter through a defending leak.

"It's so cool to win, but I've not performed the best of me," said Dong, a member of the three-fencer Chinese team in Sydney nicknamed as "China's Three Musketeers".

Another semi-finalist Wu Hanxiong lost the chance of making the final an all-Chinese clash after being beaten 15-10 by his taller opponent Bissdorf, and was forced to settle for a third place despite a successful rally in the quarters over "big brother" Wang Haibin 14-13 at overtime.

"I've been too anxious to win," complained the 23-year-old rising star of China's fencing after the semis.

"Yes, it's exciting for me to beat Wang Haibin in our first encounter of internationals, but it's not worth cocky since we've been so familiar with each other," added the shy and gentle boy who had succumbed 15-4 to fellow Ye Chong and 4th-ranked Simone Vanni 15-8 before facing Wang.

In the most tense quarter-final, Wu had been leading 11-10 before the third assault, but offered two points in a run to Wang after the reprise. After the match was driven into a stand, Wu broke the deadlock with a ceding parry as Wang was lured to lunge.

Wang leveled the score at 13-13 with eight seconds left with a nice effort of indirect attack, and sent the match into overtime.

"Wang is much more experienced than me while most of internal meetings between us are in favor of him," said Wu, who is considered one of the most steady candidates for China's men's foil team for Athens.

Source: Xinhua


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