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Hungary’s Pusztai, France’s Spichiger Win Gold in Women’s Sabre and Men’s Foil at Youth Olympic Games

09 Oct 2018

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, October 9, 2018—Hungary’s Liza Pusztai and France’s Armand Spichiger have taken gold medals in individual women’s sabre and men’s foil at the third Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In all, 23 top-ranked youth fencers participated in today’s events, taking place in the YOG Africa Pavilion.

During the day, fencing Athlete Role Models (ARMs) Daryl Homer (USA) and Maria Belen Perez Maurice (ARG) visited the Olympic Village, accompanied by fencers who had competed in the previous two days of the Games. They took part in a program called “Performance Accelerator” from the IOC Athlete365 initiative.

At the fencing venue, it was a school day and many schoolchildren came to watch the competition and were able to try fencing as they visited and participated in the fencing initiation program. Inside the arena, packed to full capacity, prior to the semifinals the ARMs were introduced to the crowd and they demonstrated and entertained the audience as they sparred with “Pandi”, the YOG official mascot.

Pusztai, who was seeded first going into the event, won the women’s sabre gold medal match against Mexico’s Natalia Botello Cervantes, 15-9. Botello, who was undefeated in the elimination rounds until the final, beat Belgium’s Jolien Corteyn in the semi-final match, 15-3, while Pusztai overcame Jueun Lee of Korea, 15-12. Lee won the bronze medal, defeating Corteyn with a 15-8 score.

Fifth-seeded Spichiger won men’s foil gold in the final against top-seeded USA’s Kenji Bravo, 15-7. Bravo beat Denmark’s Jonas Winterberg-Poulsen in the semi-final, 15-13, and Spichiger beat Poland’s third-seeded Maciej Bem, 15-8. Winterberg-Poulsen took the bronze medal against Bem, 15-13.

The top-eight finishers in the 2018 Youth Olympic Games individual women’s sabre event included Liza Pusztai (HUN, gold), Natalia Botello Cervantes (MEX, silver), Jueun Lee (KOR, bronze), Jolien Corteyn (BEL), Yoana Ilieva (BUL), Kesi Lin (CHN), Alexis Anglade (USA) and Alina Kliuchnikova (RUS).

Top-eight winners in individual men’s foil include Armand Spichiger (FRA, gold), Kenji Bravo (USA, silver), Jonas Winterberg-Poulsen (DEN, bronze), Maciej Bem (POL), Diego Cervantes (MEX), Yi-Tung Chen (TPE), Filippo Macchi (ITA) and Hei Pak Chan (HKG).

The mixed-team event will take place on October 10.

Full reports for fencing competition at the Buenos Aires Youth Olympic Games may be found here.

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