Yu Chui Yee ends drought ahead of Rio 2016 with win in Warsaw

The Hong Kong-China athlete ended what has been an uncharacteristic winless run by sealing gold in the women’s foil category A.

Yu, who won two gold medals in London 2012, had a convincing 15-9 victory over Ukraine’s Nataliia Morkvych in Warsaw to boost confidence going into September’s Paralympic Games in Rio, Brazil.

The biggest surprise of the event came in the women’s foil category B, where Russia’s Viktoria Boykova put an end to Italy’s world No. 1 Beatrice Vio’s winning streak of 11.

In a tight final, Boykova – the European champion in the women’s epee category B – topped Vio 15-13 to take gold medal.

There were more upsets in Warsaw as iIn the men’s sabre category B, Poland’s world number one Adrian Castro failed to seal the gold medal in front of his home crowd.

Castro fell to eventual winner Anton Datsko of Ukraine in the semi-finals; with Datsko then going onto beat Italy’s Alessio Sarri 15-10 in the Final. The Ukrainian also spoiled another Polish hope for gold, defeating Jacek Gaworski 15-13 in the men’s foil category B.

Poland did however celebrate a gold medal which came in an exciting bout in the men’s foil category A, as Dariusz Pender just edged out Hungary’s Richard Osvath 15-14 to claim his first victory since 2014.

Kamil Rzasa tried to add another gold to Poland’s count, but he was no match for Belarus’ Andrei Pranevich in the finals of the men’s epee individual B.

Ukraine topped the overall medal tally with five golds, two silvers and one bronze, followed by Russia, who sealed two golds, three silvers and five bronzes.

In addition to Datsko’s success, the women’s sabre category A finals featured an all-Ukrainian bout, with Morkvych defeating Yevheniia Breus 15-12.

For Russia, their other gold came from the women’s epee category A, with Yuliya Efimova besting Poland’s Marta Midrych. But the Russian run for gold was spoiled in three other events.

Germany’s Simone Briese-Baetke got her second World Cup victory this year, taking the win in the women’s epee category B over Russia’s Ludmila Vasieva.

Great Britain’s Piers Gilliver easily took the men’s epee category A gold with a 10-point win over Russia’s Artur Yusupov.

The outcome was a lot closer though in the men’s sabre category A, as France’s Ludovic Lemoine narrowly topped Russian youngster Viktor Dronov 15-13 for the gold.