Tunisian Besbes bags gold in fencing at NAS tournament

dubai — Tunisian Azza Besbes believes she will be taking back a lot of positives from Dubai as she returns home from the 6th Nad Al Sheba Sports Tournament with the Women’s Sabre International gold.

A five-time African champion and winner of the sabre individual silver medal at last year’s World Fencing Championship in Leipzig, Besbes, 27, defeated Dutchwoman Marleen Buitenhuis 15-6 at the Nad Al Sheba Complex on Wednesday night to clinch gold. She had earlier duelled in the Foil Local third-place playoff, but lost 15-8 to Ashwaq Al Messabi of Baniyas. That loss, however, failed to dampen her spirits.

“Overall, it has been a great trip for me,” said Besbes, who was born in Abu Dhabi and lived here before moving to France to pursue her fencing dreams. “This is the off season for me, so it was great to come here from France and take part in a proper competition and, of course, enjoy this great atmosphere in this Holy Month of Ramadan.

“With the 2018 World Championships being held in China from July 19-27, this trip was the perfect opportunity for me to shake off some rust and find my competitive groove. There is still a lot of work to be done until July, but winning the title here is a nice little boost.

“The target coming here was to put up a strong performance, so, overall, I can say that we have ticked most of the boxes on this trip.”