CAIRO, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Italy and Hungary pocketed one gold medal each on the final day of the 2022 Fencing World Championships on Saturday, while France led the medal tally with eight medals including four golds.
Italy dominated the foil team events as they defeated the United States 45-39 Saturday for the men's title, adding to the women's foil team gold won by Italy through a 45-27 victory over the U.S. in Friday's final.
France took the men's foil team bronze after losing 45-44 to the U.S. in the semifinals and beating Japan 45-30 in the third-place matchup.
In the other final on Saturday, Hungary won over France 45-40 to be crowned at the women's sabre team event. It was the first-ever world championship gold won by Hungary in women's team or individual sabre.
The bronze medal went to Japan, who beat Spain 45-43 after losing to France 45-43 in the semifinals.
South Korea had a strong showing on the first day of the team event finals, as they took both gold medals in the women's epee and the men's sabre after beating Italy and Hungary respectively on Thursday.
France and Italy presented a tight men's epee final on Friday as they tied three sets after exchanging the lead in the first four sets. It was France who took the lead again in the eighth set and claimed their fourth gold of the tournament.
The Chinese team was not in their best form, with seventh place in the women's epee individual and sixth place in the men's epee team being their best results in Cairo, which was also their worst overall result on the Olympic or World Championship level in the past 20 years since Tan Xue claimed China's first World Championship gold in Lisbon in 2002. ■
