Ioana Ilieva missed out on a medal at the European Sabre Championships

Ioana Ilieva missed out on a medal in the individual sabre competition at the European Fencing Championships in Genoa (Italy), BTA reports.
The 23-year-old from Sofia lost in the quarterfinals to Frenchwoman Sarah Nucha with 10:15 and finished seventh in the final standings.
Nucha made a key series of six consecutive touches to lead 7:2. The Bulgarian managed to reduce the score to 6:7, but at 9:10 with four consecutive points Nucha pulled ahead 14:9 and this proved decisive.
Earlier, Yoana Ilieva and Emma Neykova overcame their qualifying groups, while the other two Bulgarian representatives Olga Khramova and Beloslava Ivanova failed to make it through the qualifiers.
In the first round of direct eliminations, Neykova lost to the Olympic vice-champion and number 1 in the scheme Sarah Balzar (France) with 8:15, while Ilieva defeated the German Elisabeth Goethe with 15:6.
In the round of 16, the Sofia player prevailed over Balzar with 15:11, and a victory over Nucha would have guaranteed her at least bronze.
Ilieva is a bronze medalist from the World Championships in Milan 2023, European champion for women under 23 from Budapest 2023 and for girls under 20 from Porec 2020.
Neikova finished in 29th place, Khramova came in 38th, and Ivanova remained 41st out of 59 participating sabre fencers.