The gold medal came against the four-time winners in a row South Korea.Continue reading
The Hungarian women’s fencing team defended their title and won the gold medal at the Olympic qualification fencing world championships in Milan on Sunday.
The team of Liza Pusztai, Katinka Sugár Battai, Luca Szűcs, and Anna Márton were seeded in the top 16 and took to the court for the first time on Saturday, beating Poland 45-39. In the quarter-finals on Sunday, they beat the Greeks 45-35 and in the semi-finals, the South Koreans were beaten 45-39 by our national team.
In the final, the Hungarians fought the French just as they did a year ago: then it was a 45-40 Hungarian victory, now 45-38.
In the first set, Pusztai lost 5-2 to Manon Apithy-Brunet, then Battai drew 5-5 with Sara Balzer, then Szűcs lost 5-3 to Caroline Queroli. The score was 10-15 after the first period. The next period started with a Hungarian success, Battai proved to be better than Brunet by one shot, then Pusztai gave three fewer shots than Queroli. In the sixth pair, Márton replaced Szűcs and won 11-5 with great fencing, and excellent pace. The third period started from 29-30. Battai beat Queroli 6-3, then again Márton was on parade, and she made the French even more unstable with a 5-1 win over Brunet.
Finally, Pusztai concluded the battle with a 5-4 fencing-bout against Balzer. Márton finished with a hit rate of plus ten, Battai plus four, Szűcs minus two, and Pusztai minus five.
Katinka Battai Sugár (L) and French Caroline Queroli (R) MTI/Tibor Illyés
With the victory, the Hungarians made a big step towards the Olympic participation in Paris, because they were already in the qualification places, and
the most important tournament of the one-year Olympic qualification period from April to April is the World Championships, the result and the points achieved here will be included in the overall score.
The women’s fencers won the fourth medal of the Hungarian delegation in Milan: earlier, Máté Koch and the men’s team of Áron Szilágyi, András Szatmári, Csanád Gémesi, and Tamás Decsi won, while Szilágyi came in third in the individual event.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán congratulated all of the Hungarian world champions of the past week in a Facebook post:
Via MTI, Featured photo via MTI/Illyés Tibor