The fencer Nathalie Moellhausen won the gold medal at the Grand Prix of epee in Doha (Qatar). The Italian naturalized Brazilian won the six games she played this Sunday (29), including the final against the French Marie-Florence Candassamy.
World champion in 2019, Nathalie showed on Friday (27) that she would fight for medals in Doha by winning the five games of the preliminary phase – in which athletes are divided into groups and dueling against each other – and qualifying directly to the main group of the tournament, which brought together 27 of the 28 best fencers in the ranking of the International Federation of the modality (FIE). The Italian-Brazilian started the competition occupying the 36th position on the list.
Nathalie Moellhousen wins first gold at the tour since 2019 world title Augusto Bizzi/FIE/Disclosure
Nathalie opened Sunday by beating Singaporean Kiria Rahman by 13 touches to 9. Then, she defeated France’s Lauren Rembi (who beat her in the quarterfinals of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, in 2016) with a hard 9 to 8. in the round of 16 it was against Kenyan Alexandra Ndolo, world runner-up in 2022. rounds tied at 14 to 14, with the victory of the Italian-Brazilian in the tiebreaker.
The victory without major difficulties over the Italian Alessandra Bozza, by 15 to 7 (in fencing, whoever reaches 15 points before the end of the three rounds wins the duel), in the quarterfinals, preceded a complicated game against the Hungarian Eszter Muhari. The rival even had a 3-point advantage, with less than 50 seconds to go, but Nathalie reacted and got the turnaround in the tiebreaker, winning by 9 to 8 and securing herself in the final in an incredible way.
In the decision, Nathalie was dominant against Candassamy, seventh in the ranking of the FIE, always ahead of the scoreboard. Showing more agility than her opponent, the Italian-Brazilian opened up a distance in the second round and controlled the game to make 15 to 8 in the French rival and celebrate, moved, her first medal on the circuit since the world title.
Brazil was also represented in the men’s bracket of the Doha Grand Prix, by Leandro Seini and Alexandre Camargo. The first fell in the preliminary round, while the second, leader of the ranking national, stopped at the 64 stage, eliminated by the North American Stephen Ewart, by 15 to 14. If he had won, Alexandre would have reached the main draw.
