The individual épée is the only men's category featuring involvement from Russian and Belarusian neutral fencers at the Milan Convention Centre.

Despite the Ukrainian Government decree prohibiting athletes representing the country from participating in events with Russian or Belarusian competitors, Tokyo 2020 individual bronze medallist Ihor Reizlin was a late entry to the men's épée.

Four Ukrainian competitors who entered the women's épée yesterday later withdrew, but Reizlin received automatic entry to the main draw as he was seeded 13^th.

Remarkably, Anokhin is set to be his first opponent.

The 2017 European Championships team gold medallist won four of his six preliminary round matches to rank 69^th, then overcame Serbia's Jovan Jovanovic 15-6 and Czech Republic's Michal Čupr 15-13.

insidethegames has asked the National Fencing Federation of Ukraine whether Reizlin will face Anokhin as scheduled on Wednesday (July 26).

It had posted on Instagram before the start of the World Championships on Friday (July 21) that in most individual events "our athletes will not fence because athletes from a terrorist country will be present".

The presence of Russian and Belarusian athletes as neutrals at the World Championships has long proved controversial, with the FIE lifting its outright ban in March before the International Olympic Committee (IOC) updated its stance.

Several events in Europe have been cancelled because of this decision, and it was only confirmed in May that Italy would allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete as neutrals provided they are not affiliated to the military and have not supported the war in Ukraine in line with IOC recommendations.

Only 11 of the 39 registered athletes from both countries were permitted to compete.

Artem Sarkisyan was the other Russian athlete competing as a neutral in the men's épée, but he was eliminated in the preliminary round after winning just one of his five round-robin matches.

Top seed Koki Kano of Japan is set to face Dylan French of Canada in his opener, with Italian second seed Davide Di Veroli tied with South Africa's Sergey Losevskiy.

Reigning Olympic and world champion Romain Cannone of France is seeded fourth, and due to take on Britain's William East in the round-of-64.

Italy's three-time Olympic medallist Arianna Errigo marked her return to women's foil competition by reaching the main draw at her home World Championships.

Errigo gave birth to twins in March and has not competed since last year's World Championships in the Egyptian capital Cairo, where she earned an individual silver medal.

The 35-year-old, an Olympic individual silver medallist and team champion at London 2012 and team bronze medallist at Tokyo 2020 as well as a two-time individual and seven-time team world champion, was a popular figure for the home crowd.

She was the joint-top performer in the preliminary round with six wins from six in her round-robin, earning a round-of-64 tie against Canada's Yunjia Zhang, who ranked 35^th and was required to beat Argentina's Flavia Johann Mormandi 15-7 to reach the main draw.

Errigo's performance in the preliminary round was matched by Hanna Łyczbińska of Poland, and she is set to face the only Russian neutral athlete who entered the women's foil in Leyla Pirieva.

Pirieva ranked 34^th in the preliminary round, and thrashed Venezuela's Liz Rivero 15-3 in a knockout tie to reach the round-of-64.

Olympic champion Lee Kiefer of the United States is set to face Aliya Dhuique-Hein of Germany in her first match on Wednesday (July 26), and reigning world champion Ysaora Thibus of France has been pitted against Venezuela's Isis Giménez in the other half of the draw.

The FIE Fencing World Championships is due to continue tomorrow with the start of the women's sabre and men's foil events.