2022 242 T04 02 M E Individual Cairo EGY CHM PODIUM REIZLIN UKR vs MINOBE JPN

Out is Kazuyasu Minobe. Of Japan. He's 35 years of age. And he will face Igor Reitslin of Ukraine. He's 38. And he's got. Well, he had a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics. He had a bronze medal in Budapest at the World Championships in 2019. He's looking to take it further. This time around, but he won Bern in 2019. He won Kazan in 2021. So he's got the track record. Minobe won Heidenheim and Bern in 2018. But since 2019 has been a bit quiet. But they both worked their way here. Minobe had to beat his teammates Kano and Yamada to get into this match. But in the round of 32, he took out Yannick Burrell. Reitslin defeated Fong, Hui Sun of Hong Kong in the quarterfinals. But he had to fight off Matthias Thomas Koch of Hungary. I believe world number five in the 16 and Tristan Thulin in the 32. Thulin picking up the silver medal at the European Championships a few weeks ago. Andrei Kovrinyuk of the Republic of South Africa, our referee for this second semifinal. And Aleska Alular of Venezuela, our video referee. Well, if they're looking for a passivity call, they are only three seconds away from getting it. And Andrei Kovrinyuk's hand goes up and they will both get a pea yellow. The good news for Japan, the Japanese fencers were doing great today. The good news for Japan was that they had three fencers in the round of 16. The bad news was they were all in one quarter of the draw. And Reitslin puts the first hit on the board. Reitslin asked for his weapon to be checked. It works. Point stands. Reitslin goes for the foot and Minobi catches him out. Just a quick flick to the mask. If you don't know epee, the entire body is the target. Well, they're going to let the clock run down here and we will go to our first one minute break. Minobi two, Reitslin one. And I think that is probably Volodymyr Stankovic senior. The senior epee coach for Ukraine. I can't recall Minobi's coach's name, but I believe he's French. The head Japanese foil coach, or at least women's foil coach, is Frank Bourdain of France. And there are a number of French coaches that started working in Japan in the run up to Tokyo 2020. Big battle of the blades, but Minobi is so fast, his hand speed. Absolutely amazing. Reitslin looking for the blade and Minobi says it's over here on your shoulder. Well, Reitslin having to put a lot of work in to get that hit. And I've been corrected, that's not Stankovic senior, that's Dimitro Reitslin, his father, as coach. Well, that hit will not be given. And Reitslin asks for a video review. But one problem with that is that there is no audio on the referee's replay system. Let's see if there's no change. Nice, nice hit there from Minobi. Just throwing Reitslin into distance and then goes for the leg. Not a high scoring matchup, but Minobi is just sort of very quietly opening the door a little wider and we go to our second one minute break. And Minobi looks very comfortable. And Reitslin is having to do a lot of work for not much return. But Minobi is, his style is one that that Reitslin, I think, might have a problem with and I think he might be having a problem with it right now. They've only met two times and they each won one. We go to the third and final period in this second semifinal. Senior men's epee, world championships. And this for a ticket to meet Roman Cannon in the gold medal match. Double. Okay, Reitslin finds a single green light and starting to perhaps solve the Minobi puzzle. Double. Reitslin trying to step in with the flick and Minobi, you see it here, well, he landed. Reitslin keeps sort of holding his, there's another double there, his forearm of his weapon hand and, or arm. And when he was facing Fong, Hoi Son of Hong Kong in the quarterfinal, he seemed to be having a problem with that. But I spoke to Reitslin before the match and he said it's an old injury and nothing new and nothing serious. Minobi wants to step off and straighten his weapon. Another double. Just a one point margin for Minobi and Reitslin's got a minute and a half to figure out how to solve that problem. Minobi draws the attack, gets the parry and now it's a two point problem. There's one back. But again, after that action, Reitslin holding his forearm. Another double. Reitslin is so close. Another double. Oh, there he's found it. He's found the hit. And we are level at 12, but it is a lot of work for Reitslin to adapt to Minobi's style. But he's done the work and 38 seconds is a long time in epee. Somebody going to go for it? Are they going to let it go to a priority minute? This kind of looks like priority minute time and they will let the clock run down and we will end this match in sudden death. Minobi holds priority. So it is incumbent upon Igor Reitslin to score if he wants to go to the gold medal match. Here we go. It's all down to this. Double means nothing. Close. Oh, nice. Nice, Kazuyasu Minobi. Now, in a situation like this, the referee, when the score is tied, the referee must check the video before confirming the call. And Igor Reitslin puts his finger up and concedes. It was a clean hit. And it is Minobi into the gold medal match to face Romain Canon. That should be interesting. And it is a bronze medal at the world championships for Igor Reitslin. So close. Two great matches. Two tight, well-fought matches. And Igor Reitslin a bit disappointed getting a hug from his dad. But he'll be on the podium later as we see the winning hit. And perfect, picture perfect. So we'll see Igor Reitslin on the podium to pick up his bronze medal later. But first we have to find out who's going to get the other two. Reitslin and Nesr Loyola. But it's time to hand over to Graham and Richard because there's a gold medal match coming up and we're going to crown our first of two new world champions here tonight. Thank you very much, David. So we are going to, as we see confirmation of the score, Minobe 13, Reitslin 12, but it was that priority minute at the end. And Richard, we were watching that and you're talking as a foilist, fencing epee, how much do you actually fence?