ATHENS, Greece, March 6-8, 2020—USA’s two-time Olympic gold medallist and double world champion Mariel Zagunis won the Athens “Coupe Acropolis 2020” Women’s Sabre World Cup individual event, with Russia scoring gold in women’s team sabre. Taking place at the Athens Olympic Complex (O.A.K.A), 200 international women’s sabre fencers participated in the competition as well as teams from 24 countries.
Zagunis faced Hungary’s Liza Pusztai in the final of the women’s individual sabre event, winning with a 15-6 score. Pusztai beat Greece’s Theodora Gkountoura in the semifinal round, 15-9, while Zagunis overcame Japan’s Misaki Emura, 15-8. Emura defeated Russian world champion Sofia Pozdniakova in the quarterfinals, 15-13, and Pozdniakova beat teammate and Olympic champion Yana Egorian in the table of 16, 15-12.
Russia defeated Italy in the final match of the women’s team sabre event, 45-35. Italy beat Poland in the semifinal round, 45-31, and Russia narrowly beat Hungary, 45-44. It was Hungary that took the bronze medal against Poland, 45-36.
Final ranking for the women’s individual sabre event included Mariel Zagunis (USA, gold), Liza Pusztai (HUN, silver), Misaki Emura (JPN, bronze), Theodora Gkountoura (GRE, bronze), Sofia Pozdniakova (RUS), Anna Marton (HUN), Rossella Gregorio (ITA) and Dagmara Wozniak (USA).
In team women’s sabre, final ranking included Russia (gold), Italy (silver), Hungary (bronze), Poland, Korea, Spain, France and China.
Complete and official results for the event may be found here on the FIE web site. For more exciting world fencing news and features on the Road to Tokyo, check out the FIE video series on our YouTube channel.