Twenty years ago, in 2002, our women’s sword team competed in the World Cup finals in Lisbon, where they won the silver medal behind the Russians. But now even the world-leading French couldn’t stop our team in the final.
The last moments were full of excitement:
Head coach Gábor Gárdos gave the following statement on the website of the Hungarian Fencing Association: “I think that by defeating the Italians in the quarter-finals, a barrier was broken in this team. After that, it was amazing what the girls did. At the same time, they fought so well, they were so united that in the semi-finals and the final I already believed the unbelievable… I would like to thank my younger coaching colleagues, Benjámin Bódy, László Dávid and Etele Ravasz, for being partners and helpers in the work we recently started together . An old master like me wants this professional relationship with his colleagues. I hope that Márton Panka will also return next year (our Tokyo Olympic fourth-place competitor recently had a child – ed.), and then the sky is the limit! And speaking of my age: a friend of mine wished me a happy sixtieth birthday so that it would be like the fifty-fifth. Five years ago, Andris Szatmári won World Cup gold on my birthday. According to the Hungarian saying, a week before and after “the gift arrives”, so thank you girls for that. Finally, one more thing: the girls are world championship gold medalists not only in the sword team, but also in the beauty pageant according to general, international opinion. I agree!
Battai Ray, who fought outstandingly throughout the day, took the lion’s share of the success in both the quarter-finals and the final:
– I’m incredibly happy, I’m trying to believe that all of this is true… All day I felt that we are extremely united, everyone is helping and supporting the other Pashto and Pashto. The whole day went well, I enjoyed fencing, it was a wonderful day! We are very happy, I have never seen so many men in tears…
Soldier Renata, who contributed a lot in the semi-finals to our team being able to win the World Cup final:
“This is the happiest day of my life!” I needed the others to help me through after my fencing in the quarterfinals. And I’m so glad it did! I can’t find words for what these girls did in the final!
Desert Liza, who ended the matches with Hungarian victories in five consecutive matches:
“This is all unbelievable!” Yesterday, we were already happy that we managed to reach the top eight, and we thought, let’s try to beat the Italians. It worked. Then let’s beat the Spanish too. It worked. Then let the French come. It worked. I became an adult world champion in a team, that’s huge! When the verdict was overturned at 44-39 and we were happy early, it didn’t bother me at all. I knew I was going to submit the next one. Now we can celebrate!
Luca Szűcs, who always added something to the victory every time he entered the field:
– This is serious? I don’t want to believe it, I really don’t! We became world champions! I have never fought with such a united team and staff that think together in everything. I wasn’t really nervous when I was in Pashtun, only when I was cheering for the others. I’ll wake up tomorrow and hope I didn’t just dream it all.
This morning you can already believe that this is the reality!
Áron Szilágyi won the men’s saber individual at the World Championships, adding the individual World Cup title to his three Olympic golds and the 2015 European individual victory. The men’s epee team of András Szilágyi, András Szatmári, Csanád Gémesi and Tamás Decsi won a silver medal. The fourth place of our men’s dueling team – Gergely Siklósi, Máté Koch, Dávid Nagy, Tibor Andrásfi – is also a great result.
The national team captain Gábor Boczkó – who admittedly was surprised by the gold medal of our women’s saber team – summed up that there were many positives at the World Cup, but the most important thing for him is that we made progress compared to the European Championships in June, because in Antalya we did not get any other medals besides the gold of the men’s saber team ,
With its two golds and one silver, Hungary finished fourth on the World Cup medal table behind France (4, 2, 2), the Republic of Korea (3, 0, 0) and Italy (2, 4, 2), while Japan (1 , 1, 2) won.
Cover photo: The “cute” girls: Liza Pusztai, Renáta Katona, Luca Szűcs and Renáta Katona (Source: Hungarian Fencing Association)
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