Two Fencing Championships, Two Medals over the Weekend

Sugár Battai and Japan’s Misaki Emura at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games

The Hungarian women’s team finished with a silver medal at the Sabre World Cup in Plovdiv, Serbia, while Gergely Siklósi also finished on the podium at the Doha Epée Grand Prix in Quatar on Sunday.

The team of two-time world team champion Sugár Battai, Liza Pusztai and Luca Szűcs with Anna Spiesz started with a 45-27 win over Hong Kong at the World Cup. They went on to reach the final with similarly confident victories, beating first the Poles 45-28 and then the French 45-37.

In the final, the Hungarians fought the Japanese and were in good position for long:

before the ninth match they were leading 40-35, but two-time individual world champion Misaki Emura turned the match around with a 10-4 run, and the final score was 45-44 in favor of the Japanese.

The coach of the national team, Etele Ravasz, was also positive:

We have have won medals in two World Cups this season, and this stability is probably the most important. It is also valuable that the girls reached the final with a lot of confidence in a full field,”

the coach told the Hungarian Fencing Federation. “We can be satisfied with the silver, but there are lessons to be learned from what happened so that we can improve,” he added.

The men’s team of András Szatmári, Krisztián Rabb, Nikolász Iliász and Mirkó Petrucz suffered a surprise 45-41 defeat to Hong Kong in the last eight. Although they beat the Italians 45-41 in the consolation round, they lost 45-40 to the Germans and then by the same margin to the Iranians to finish 12th.

On the same day, Gergely Siklósi excelled in Doha, also winning a silver medal. The Hungarian epée fencer, last year’s Olympic champion with the team, 2019 World Championship winner in singles and 2021 Olympic silver medalist, started as the main draw seed. Here he defeated Japan’s Kentaro Murayama 15-9, Belarus’ Mark Semanenko 15-7, France’s Alexandre Bardenet 15-9 and Italy’s Gabriele Cimini by the same margin.

In the semi-finals, he fought Ruben Limardo Gascon, the 39-year-old Venezuelan champion of the London Olympics in 2012. Like his opponent, the 27-year-old Siklósi started in a cautious manner and the first three minutes ended 2-2. In the rest of the match, the Hungarian athlete fought his way to a six to seven touch advantage. In the end, Gascon fought back but had no realistic chance to catch up and lost 12-7.

Siklósi was up against Cuban-born Belgian Neisser Loyola, the bronze medalist at the 2022 World Championships, for the gold medal.

The Belgian fencer was able to launch actions at a very good pace, was accurate and felt the distance, while Siklósi’s attack was repeatedly ineffective. The Belgian fencer eventually won 15-11, thus bringing Siklósi the silver medal.

Three Medals Won at the European Fencing Championships