Bronze medal for Emma Șonț at the youth EC

Emma Șonț thus repeats the performance from the European Youth Championships two years ago, where she also occupied the third step of the podium. Spadasina, trained in the national team by Octavian Zidaru, had to take a rather long break last year, due to a knee operation.

The Romanian finished the group stage of today's competition in 4th place, thus directly entering the table of 32 of the individual epee competition. There he decisively passed, 15-4, Fiona Mueller, representative of Germany. Arriving among the first 16 athletes on the board, the CSA Steaua Bucharest swordswoman defeated the Polish Cecylia Cieslik, 15-7.

In the quarter-finals of the U23 continental competition, the “tricolor” fencer defeated Dinara Anis (Estonia), 13-7. After a competition in which Emma Șonț did not seem to have any problems on the board, the hard part came in the semi-final with Oceane Francillonne (France).

The attack was extremely balanced: 3-3 after the first three minutes and a single touch, 8-7, in favor of the Frenchwoman after the second half. In the third round of the meeting between Şonț and Francillonne, the French representative also had three points ahead (12-9), which Emma patiently recovered, stopping the score at 12-12 after regulation time.

The “golden minute” followed, with priority for Oceane Francillonne – the rules saying that if neither fighter gives the touch to win the assault, the victory automatically goes to the athlete with priority. However, the French swordsman scored before the end. 13-12 for Francillonne, and Emma Şonț remained with the European bronze medal.

In the other semi-final, the Italian Gaia Caforio and the Ukrainian Emily Conrad faced each other. And this assault was also decided by a single touch difference, 12-11, in favor of the Italian.

Emma Șonț plays the guitar and studies business administration

In an interview for Gazeta Sporturilor, Emma Șonț said that she got into fencing by accident. “I started fencing somehow as a method of recovery. I did various sports since I was little, I went through a lot of disciplines,” said Emma, ​​who also plays the guitar and who studies at the Faculty of Administration and Business.

“First I did dances, ballet, swimming, horse riding. I did it all the time because that was my passion since I was little. Before I got to fencing, I was in basketball. But I also went horse riding. I liked it a lot, but I fell off the horse, I broke my arm. Then I had to give up basketball. My mom kept trying to find me a sport that would allow me to use only my right hand, because I couldn't move my left, I had quite a lot of trouble recovering. That's how I got into fencing”, Emma Șonț told

When asked what she thinks are her qualities that help her on the board, Emma Șonț answered: “I think one of the most important aspects is to be disciplined. Besides, when you combine discipline with creativity and apply them, even if you don't succeed once, you will come up with other new ideas and try again, once more and once more.” Even though they are two different aspects – one is somehow artistic, the other is serious – I think they have helped me a lot throughout my career. Creativity helps me in competitions, everyday discipline helps me achieve my goals”.

Tomorrow, on the second day of the European Youth Championships in Cagliari, the Romanian sabers (Amalia Covaliu, Anastasia Fusea, Catinca Dumitru and Alexandra Mitruș), the foilists (Alexandra Adoch, Andreea Dincă and Ingrid Miti Bikfalvi), as well as the fencers (Albert Băloi, Marton Mezinger, Andrei Lazăr and Ștefan Popa) will take to the stage. On Monday and Tuesday, the team competitions of the continental youth competition will take place.