Hiroaki Toto of France delivered a commanding performance to top a field of 138 fencers at the Cadet Men’s \u00c9p\u00e9e World Championship, defeating Canada\u2019s Junzhe Simon Shan 15\u201311 in front of an appreciative crowd at Rio de Janeiro\u2019s Carioca Arena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, Lotti Horvath of Hungary successfully defended her Cadet Women\u2019s \u00c9p\u00e9e World Championship title\u2014first won in Wuxi, China in 2025\u2014by defeating Natalya Cafasso of the United States, 15\u20138.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Toto recovered from an early 3\u20131 deficit to take a narrow 5\u20134 lead into the first-minute break. From there, he controlled the bout, scoring three toe touches and capitalizing on five double touches in the final phase\u2014sealing the victory with a double on the decisive, gold medal touch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Frenchman\u2019s path to the title was marked by consistent, composed fencing. He earned a 15\u201312 victory over T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s Mehmet Ilgar Cevizici in the round of 16, followed with a 15\u201311 win against Australia\u2019s Sora Robinson in the quarterfinals, and then defeated Japan\u2019s Ando Kyosuke in the semifinals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ando showed great determination despite fencing with a right leg injury, which significantly limited his mobility in a discipline where footspeed is crucial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the other semifinal, Shan advanced with a dominant 15\u20138 win over Ukraine\u2019s Oleksandr Stabnikov. Stabnikov had earlier produced one of the most thrilling bouts of the day, rallying for a 14\u201313 overtime victory against Belgium\u2019s Wout van Laecke in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both Ando and Stabnikov claimed bronze medals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Competing in a field of 129 fencers, Horvath\u2019s toughest test came in the semifinal against Ukraine\u2019s Alina Dmytruk, whom she had defeated for gold in Wuxi. In a tightly contested, back-and-forth bout, Horvath prevailed 15\u201312, showcasing her command of distance and using her reach advantage to secure key double touches while holding the lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In both the semifinal and final, Horvath demonstrated a sophisticated tactical arsenal, mixing in well-timed toe touches and intentional remises on her way to the top of the podium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the other semifinal, Cafasso combined frenetic footwork with strong bladework to defeat Canada\u2019s Yanka Sobus, 15\u20139.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dmytruk and Sobus each earned bronze medals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Notably, Horvath, Cafasso, and Dmytruk all reached the quarterfinals of the Junior competition the previous day, underlining their status as leaders of the next generation in women\u2019s \u00e9p\u00e9e. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Canada\u2019s Julia Yin\u20142025 Junior World Champion\u2014also fits into that group, having reached the quarterfinals in both the Junior and Cadet events. Yin\u2019s run in the Cadet competition ended in the round of eight with a 15\u201312 loss to Cafasso.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Final Rankings \u2013 Cadet Women\u2019s \u00c9p\u00e9e<\/strong> Final Ranking \u2013 Cadet Men\u2019s \u00c9p\u00e9e<\/strong> Hiroaki Toto of France delivered a commanding performance to top a field of 138 fencers at the Cadet<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[391,95],"class_list":["post-11441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-epee","tag-fencing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Hiroaki-Toto.jpeg",1280,854,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Hiroaki-Toto-150x150.jpeg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Hiroaki-Toto-300x200.jpeg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Hiroaki-Toto-768x512.jpeg",640,427,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Hiroaki-Toto-1024x683.jpeg",640,427,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Hiroaki-Toto.jpeg",1280,854,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Hiroaki-Toto.jpeg",1280,854,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Hiroaki-Toto-825x575.jpeg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Hiroaki-Toto-590x410.jpeg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Newsbeat<\/a>","tag_info":"Newsbeat","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Hiroaki-Toto.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11441"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11445,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11441\/revisions\/11445"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Lotti Horvath (HUN) \u2013 Gold
Natalya Cafasso (USA) \u2013 Silver
Alina Dmytruk (UKR) \u2013 Bronze
Yanka Sobus (CAN) \u2013 Bronze
Julia Yin (CAN)
Francesca Aina (ITA)
Adela Bartoskova (CZE)
Viktoria Nikiforov (GER)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hiroaki Toto (FRA) \u2013 Gold
Junzhe (Simon) Shan (CAN) \u2013 Silver
Oleksandr Stabnikov (UKR) \u2013 Bronze
Ando Kyosuke (JPN) \u2013 Bronze
Sora Robinson (AUS)
Wout van Laecke (BEL)
Aron Petrovszki (HUN)
Mordechai Milu Lachman (ISR)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"