Junior & Cadet Worlds Day 8: Cafasso Takes Cadet Women's Epee Silver
Published
Day 8 of the 2026 Junior & Cadet World Championships began with a crisis and ended with a medal.
Day 8 of the 2026 Junior & Cadet World Championships began with a crisis and ended with a medal.
A fire at 4:15 a.m., and a day rebuilt
A fire broke out at the Velodrome — the championships' secondary venue — at 4:15 a.m. All competition was consolidated into a single building. Volunteers and staff reorganized the day's schedule and still finished on time. USA Fencing's report was explicit that the disruption was not the FIE's fault, and credited the people on the ground for absorbing it.
Cafasso's run to the final
Natalya Cafasso (Olympia Fencing Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts) had already fenced Junior Women's Epee on Day 7. She came back on Day 8 and reached the Cadet Women's Epee final.
Her day:
- Pools: 4–2, with wins including 15–10 over Carlota Chareca (POR), 15–7 over Yagmur Yurttas (TUR), and 15–9 over Laena Lee (KOR)
- Quarterfinal: 15–12 over Julia Yin (CAN), who won Junior Women's Epee gold in 2024 and silver in 2025
- Semifinal: 15–9 over Yanka Sobus (CAN)
- Final: lost 15–8 to Lotti Horváth (HUN), the reigning Cadet Women's Epee world champion
Silver in a field that deep, on a day that started with a fire, is the kind of result that says more about composure than about touches.
A U.S. pattern in Cadet Women's Epee
The medal is the second U.S. Cadet Women's Epee silver in three years, following Sharika Gajjala's silver at the 2024 championships in Riyadh.
Other American results
- Scarlett Lee (New York Fencing Academy) — 14th
- Regina Lee (Swords Fencing Studio) — 20th
Fencing back-to-back days
Competing in Junior on one day and Cadet the next is physically brutal and mentally harder. Recovery habits — sleep, food, fluids, and a short mental reset between events — are trainable. So is the ability to treat a schedule change as noise rather than an excuse, which is exactly what the whole American contingent had to do on Day 8.
Related reading on Saber Nation
- Day 7 in Rio: Nathaniel Wimmer takes historic Junior Men's Epee silver
- All USA Fencing news for saber fencers
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Official USA Fencing source: Junior & Cadet Worlds Day 8: Cafasso Earns Cadet Women's Epee Silver in Remarkable Day Marked by Resilience On and Off the Strip — published April 8, 2026.
Training options
Continue with Day 7 in Rio: Wimmer's historic silver or More USA Fencing news or Saber fencing classes in Bethesda, MD.