European champion Castro met namesake Amelio Castro in the final of the men’s sabre category B. Amelio, a former refugee Para athlete and Paralympian, rose to the occasion as he made his debut both for Italy and in a World Cup final. 

Amelio pushed Adrian all the way, appearing to have immense fun as he landed hits he did not expect against such a legendary sabre fencer. 

But double Paralympic medallist Adrian’s experience shone through and he powered to a 15-10 victory. 

Fan Li Zhu and Jie Zhang rounded-off a great day for China, sharing the event’s third place. 

In the men’s sabre category A, Germany’s Paralympic champion Maurice Schmidt executed his perfect season opener, emerging the victor from a quality field. 

In the final Schmidt overcame Chinese World Championships bronze medallist Li Hao whilst Italy’s Edoardo Giordan, third place finisher from Paris 2024, and China’s Jianquan Tian, a Worlds silver medallist, occupied the rest of the podium. 

In the women’s, making her second World Cup appearance of the year but first on top of the foil category B was Thailand’s Paralympic champion, Saysunee Jana. 

Two months ago in Pisa, Jana finished third but on Wednesday beat China’s Kang Su, competing in her 2026 debut, to gold. 

China’s JingJing Zhou and South Korea’s Eun Hye Cho were the bronze medallists. 

China’s Yuandong Chen faced-off with teammate Xufeng Zou in a closely fought final in the women’s foil category A. There was little to separate the pair for most of the match but Chen managed to stretch away from her Paralympic champion teammate for an 11-15 win. 

South Korea picked-up another bronze courtesy of Hyo Kyeong Kwon, alongside Hungarian rising star Anna Nadasdy with her latest podium finish ahead of June’s Under 23s World Championships. 

The Bradenton 2026 Para Fencing World Cup continues on Thursday with the men’s epee and women’s sabre. Across four days of competition, athletes will compete in foil, epee and sabre category A and B before ending with new official formats for 2026 in the mixed team in sabre, foil and epee.