On Friday, the Hungarian women’s sword team won a bronze medal at the European Games in Krakow, where the sports team competitions are also European championships.
The defending world champion team consisting of Battai Sugár, Renáta Katona, Liza Pusztai, and Luca Szűcs competed in the quarter-finals for the first time as seeds, where they won decisively against the Greeks. After that, they lost to the leading Italians by five hits, so they could face the Bulgarians for the bronze medal in their last match.
Pusztai started with 3-0, but then lost confidence, and Joana Ilieva converted, then Battai also lost to Emma Neikova, who needed treatment during the ace because her ankle turned. Szűcs was next against Olga Hramova, but she could not change the course of the match (9-15). There was a lack of decisiveness in the actions of the Hungarians, the attacks were short.
At the beginning of the second round, Pusztai carved out a little bit of the deficit with a 6-5 ace, then Szűcs had several actions according to her idea, for which he had to finish her attacks bravely. She beat Ilieva 8-5, reducing the difference to two strokes. Battai then equalized at 28-28, but the second round ended 28-30.
In the first half of his third duel, Szűcs felt the pace, turned it to 34-32, and then again “abandoned” actions followed, so with his 6-5 success, she brought her team only one closer to the Bulgarians. Pusztai won 6-1 against Hramova in the eighth set, which resulted in a closing ace between Battai and Ilieva to start from 40-36. In the end, this also ended with a Hungarian success, so the match ended with a 45-40 Hungarian victory.
“I expected an easier match, especially based on how we fought earlier today, because everyone fought confidently and well. Of course, it didn’t go well in the match against the Italians, but we didn’t fight badly there either, it could have been closer.”
– Sugár Battai, the team’s finisher, evaluated the team’s performance on the day after the bronze match for MTI. – “I could have won my first two aces better against the Bulgarians, maybe I was still a little tense there. At the beginning, I was a little confused by the long treatment and the subsequent argument that the judge gave me. But it ended well and we are very happy with the medal.”
Head coach Gábor Gárdos also talked about how he was forced to talk to his fencers after the first third of the qualifier, because they had a very poor production until then.
“Luckily, we got the Bulgarian team for the bronze medal match, which seems to be much weaker than ours, then after the first round they led 15-9. Then I called the girls over and asked them what opponent they wanted for the bronze, if not the Bulgarians. With this, we managed to turn the events around and get the bronze medal, which was very important for us”
– said Gárdos, who was particularly satisfied with the fencing in the quarter-finals against the Greeks. – “We thought in the morning that the Ukrainians would come in the eight, so we were happy for the Greeks. Of course, the third and fourth place in the world rankings are fighting with them, so it was not at all easy to expect a match, but the girls fought very well and collected there, it was a miracle.”
Fencing team competitions were also held for European Championship medals and placings, and the results are also included in the Olympic qualification series.
Results (12 teams):
quarter finals:
HUNGARY-Greece 45-30
Italy-Azerbaijan 45-42
France-Germany 45-29
Bulgaria-Spain 45-44
semi-final:
Italy-HUNGARY 45-40
France-Bulgaria 45-35
bronze match:
HUNGARY-Bulgaria 45-40
finals:
France-Italy 45-38
The final result: 1. France (Manon Apithy-Brunet, Sara Balzer, Cecilia Berder, Margaux Rifkiss), 2. Italy (Martina Criscio, Rossella Gregorio, Chiara Mormile, Eloisa Passaro), 3. HUNGARY (Battai Sugár, Renáta Katona, Pusztai Liza, Luca Szűcs).
(Debreceni Nap)
