London 2012: Troiano and Bentley find Italian job too tough

Thursday, August 2, 2012
11:58 AM

Olympic fencing: Team GB trio fall at the quarter final stage to world champions

London-based duo Sophie Troiano and Anna Bentley were powerless to stop the march of the Italian world champions in the women’s fencing team foil.

The Great Britain trio, which also included Natalia Sheppard, lost all but the last of their nine-bout match to slip to a 42-14 quarter-final defeat.

The home nation had beaten Egypt 45-34 to secure their passage at the ExCel Arena but against the Italians the contest went with the form book.

The favourites raced through the bouts, claiming the maximum five hits in each game with unfortunate Lansdowne Fencing Club’s Troiano only managing one strike in her three outings, coming up short in two 5-0 defeats to individual foil gold medal winner Elisa Di Francisca.

Bentley fared slightly better but the best she could manage was coming within two hits of Arianna Errigo in bout eight.

Team GB’s Natalia Sheppard managed a 2-2 draw in the anchor clash with Valentina Vezzazi but by then the Italians were nailed on to progress to the last four.