Hungary’s women’s sabre team of Sugár Battai, Luca Szűcs, Anna Spiesz, and Renáta Katona captured the gold medal at the World Fencing Championships in Hong Kong.
After convincing victories over Azerbaijan and Japan, the Hungarian quartet faced defending champion France in a thrilling semifinal, edging the French by a single touch to advance to the final. In the gold medal match against China, Hungary overcame a slow start, seized control, rallied from behind, and claimed a 45–41 victory.
Hungary also won the world title in 2022 and 2023.
With this latest triumph, Sugár Battai and Luca Szűcs became three-time world champions, while Renáta Katona earned her second world title. Last year, the Hungarian team of Battai, Szűcs, Katona, and Liza Pusztai took home the bronze medal.
Battai opened the final but fell 5–2 to Pan Qimiao. Spiesz was also unable to change the momentum, losing 5–1 to Zhao Xueyi. Szűcs, however, delivered a spectacular performance, defeating Zhang Xinyi 12–3 as her opponent steadily lost confidence, giving Hungary a 15–13 lead.
Spiesz battled to a 5–5 draw against Pan before Battai extended Hungary’s lead with a 5–2 win over Wei Jiayi, who had replaced Zhang. Szűcs then hit a brief lull, losing her relay 8–5 to Zhao despite appearing capable of finishing level.
With Hungary leading 29–28, she changed weapons to regroup and ultimately preserved her team’s advantage, ending the relay with Hungary ahead 30–28.
China brought Zhang back into the lineup, but the move backfired. Spiesz defeated her convincingly, 5–2. Szűcs started strongly against Pan and looked poised to hand Battai a lead of seven or eight touches heading into the final relay. Several of her attacks, however, were ruled invalid by the referee. She ultimately lost the relay 6–5, sending Battai into the final bout with a 40–36 advantage.
Zhao scored the first two touches of the final relay before Battai responded. The Hungarian then landed a one-light counterattack, followed by another clean touch. Hungary’s 44th point came on a beautifully executed parry-riposte. Zhao answered with a determined attack, but Battai scored the decisive touch in the next exchange, finishing the relay tied 5–5 and securing Hungary’s four-touch victory.
The women’s sabre team earned Hungary’s third medal of the World Championships in Hong Kong.
Earlier in the tournament, Battai won bronze in the individual women’s sabre event, while foil fencer Dániel Dósa also claimed an individual bronze medal.
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Via MTI, Featured image: MTI/Czeglédi Zsolt
