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Anna Maksymenko wins Ukraine's first Grand Prix fencing gold since 2020

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Anna Maksymenko wins Ukraine's first Grand Prix fencing gold since 2020
Ukrainian fencer Anna Maksymenko, 17, secured her first career gold medal at the Budapest Epee Grand Prix on March 16, 2025. (National Fencing Federation of Ukraine / Facebook) 

Ukrainian fencer Anna Maksymenko, 17, secured her first career gold medal at the Budapest Epee Grand Prix on March 16.

This marks Ukraine's first Grand Prix victory in fencing since 2020 when Olha Kharlan won gold in saber in Montreal. It is also the first gold in epee competitions since 2013.

Maksymenko defeated Canada's Leonora MacKinnon 15:9 in the semifinals, setting up a final match against Italy's Giulia Rizzi, a Paris 2024 Olympic team champion.

The final was tightly contested, with Maksymenko trailing 9:11 in the last period. However, she equalized with 30 seconds left and then executed a decisive counterattack to win 12:11.

The victory marks Maksymenko's first individual Grand Prix medal, adding to her previous silver in a team event at the World Cup level.

On March 9, Ukrainian high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh claimed the gold medal at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn, Netherlands.

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Tim Zadorozhnyy

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Tim Zadorozhnyy is the reporter for the Kyiv Independent, specializing in foreign policy, U.S.-Ukraine relations, and political developments across Europe and Russia. Based in Warsaw, he is pursuing studies in International Relations and the European Studies program at Lazarski University, offered in partnership with Coventry University. Tim began his career at a local television channel in Odesa in 2022. After relocating to Warsaw, he spent a year and a half with the Belarusian independent media outlet NEXTA, initially as a news anchor and later as managing editor. Tim is fluent in English, Ukrainian, and Russian.

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