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Mara Navarria, 33, defeats Romania's Ana Maria Popescu, 34, 13-9 in the finals of the women's individual epee event of the World Fencing Championships in Wuxi, East China's Jiangsu province, on July 22. [Photo/Xinhua] |
"Dream is a possible issue as you can think. If you're wondering, you can do it," said Mara Navarria in an interview with China Daily on July 23.
Navarria, the world top-ranked epeeist, claimed her first individual title at the 2018 World Fencing Championships a day before, in Wuxi, East China's Jiangsu province.
As a fencer, Navarriva had won numerous laurels, including three World Cup championships and two Grand Prix titles, over the past years.
She took up fencing rather accidentally at the age of 10. "Before that, I was doing canoeing. I changed plan because my brother was doing fencing, and I am the second of the four in the family," Navarria said.
When asked about how she manages to keep such good form in her career, the Italian veteran, 33, said it is experience that matters. "I think experience in this part is important. I have good training and good team," she said, adding that the process actually is "not easy".
"I have grown up over the years, as a woman, an athlete and a mom. It's not easy." said Navarria, who married her physical trainer Andrea Lo Coco and gave birth to a son, Samuele, in 2012.
"I have a great husband near me, who helps me do the hard work and my training time," she added.
Navarria defeated Romania's Ana Maria Popescu, 13-9 in the finals of the women's individual epee event on the fourth day of the world tournament.
"I work a lot, I am not young and today I realized like a dream," she said right after the match.
She also mentioned that she has fulfilled her promise to her Russian ex-coach Oleg Pouzanov, who died in December 2015, that she would win.
The pair had worked together since 2005. In the 2015 World Cup in Doha, Qatar, Navarria scored gold and showed the palm of her left hand with the name 'Oleg' written on it while she was on the podium.
