Women's, men's fencing teams take silvers at European Championships
Both the Estonian women's and men's epee fencing teams won the silver medals at the European Fencing Championships at Montreux, Switzerland.
The women's team lost the final to Romania 35:45 on Tuesday evening.
Prior to Tuesday's final, the women had defeated Netherlands, France and Italy.
The team consisted of Julia Beljajeva, Irina Embrich, Estonian Female Athlete of the Year Erika Kirpu and Junior Athlete of the Year Katrina Lehis. Individually, Beljajeva, Lehis and Embrich were all in the top 16 but failed to make it to the quarter-finals.
The women's epee team has been named Estonian's team of the year two years in a row. In 2014, they took the silver at the World Fencing Championship in Kazan, Russia.
Men's epee tournament was held a day later on Wednesday. The Estonian team - Nikolai Novosjolov, Sten Priinits, Marno Allika and Peeter Turnau - beat Germany 35:31 in the preliminary round, Russia 45:36 in the quarter-final, and hosts Switzerland 42:41 in the semis, with Novosjolov scoring the winning touch in extra time. Estonia was behind 38:34 just 50 seconds before the end of the 9-round match.
However, they were disarmed by the French, losing the gold medal match 45:32. Estonia did, nevertheless, take a long step toward qualifying for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Editor: M. Oll