The Hungarian team won a gold medal at the men’s swordsman world cup in Padova, and Sugár Battai won the gold medal at the women’s swordsmanship championship in Athens, writes MTI.
The team composed of Áron Szilágyi, András Szatmári, Csanád Gémesi, and Tamás Decsi entered the competition as second in the world rankings in the 16th place in the field of 26 national teams. They defeated the Turks 45-32, the Japanese 45-37, and the Chinese in the semi-finals by the same amount. They fought the Italians for the gold and gave a very confident performance to win 45-30. A day earlier, Szatmári, who finished seventh in the individual competition, was the best Hungarian.
The international field competed in women’s saber in Athens. The 19-year-old Sugár Battai marched with great victories to the final, where she defeated a four-time individual world champion. She saw off the Spanish Araceli Navarro 15-13, the Italian Chiara Mormile 15-14, and the French Caroline Queroli 15-9, then in the quarter-finals she beat the defending World Cup champion Emura Misaki of Japan 15-13, in the semi-finals and she proved to be 15-9 better than the French Manon Apithy-Brunet, the Olympic bronze medalist in Tokyo – according to the website of the competition. In the final, she faced Ukrainian Olga Harlan and won 15-14.
“I’m very proud, this whole day was a great experience. I didn’t think I could win an adult world cup,” she said in M4 Sport’s National Sports News, adding that ” she came together not with incredibly outstanding fencing, but with confidence and patience” victory. As she said, a good result is important because it proves that she can also be successful individually in the adult field, and it gives her a lot of momentum.
Reviving the competition, she explained that she was a little tired on Friday’s qualifying day, because at the beginning of the week, she participated in the Junior European Championships in Tallinn – she won a gold medal with the team – and she was not mentally ready for the first day in Athens.
“But the 15 aces were already good, and today I felt that I became more and more confident and could play more and more freely,” she said.
According to her confession, she stood against Emura, Apithy-Brunet and Harlan as if she was not the best, because of this she fought calmly and even surprised his opponents with her slow preparations.
Liza Pusztai, another member of last year’s world-champion Hungarian team, defeated her three opponents and finished seventh in the field of 175 people. Anna Márton reached the second round, Renáta Katona, who also won the World Cup in 2022 with the national team, and Luca László lost in their first main draw match. There will be a team competition in the Greek capital on Sunday.
In fencing, the Olympic qualification period begins in April, until then the goal is for the Hungarians to maintain their good world rankings and, if possible, to improve, so that they can start the important year before the Paris Games from a favorable position.
