WUXI, China, July 26, 2018—Two countries made history tonight at the 2018 Wuxi Fencing World Championships. The USA women’s foil and Swiss men’s epee teams won gold medals, the first time ever for either nation. This was the eighth day of the nine-day championships with 12 events taking place at the spacious and digitally enhanced Wuxi Sports Center Gym, and the first time a full world championship has been hosted in China. Fencing teams from around the world participated in the day’s two tournaments, with 22 in women’s team foil and 33 in men’s team epee.
USA faced Italy in the final round of women’s team foil, winning with a 45-35 final score. Italy and Russia have won the last eight world championship titles in this event, with Poland being the last other country to win (2007) before USA’s victory tonight. USA took a silver medal in this event in 2017. Italy beat France in the semi-finals, 45-29, while USA overcame Korea, 45-22. The bronze medal went to France, winning against Korea, 35-26.
Switzerland has won ten world championship medals in men’s team epee prior to this year, and this is the first gold. They are the only country have reached the podium in this event in each of the last three world championships. Tonight, to finally take gold, they defeated Korea in the title match, 36-31; Korea won silver medals also in the 2014 and 2015 world championships. Korea beat Russia in the semi-final, 45-35, and Switzerland won against France, 45-38. France has won eight of the last 11 world titles in men’s team epee, and taken the most medals in history (38) and gold medals (19) of any country. The bronze medal went to Russia, who beat France 45-35.
The top eight finalists in women’s team foil at the 2018 Wuxi Fencing World Championships include USA (gold), Italy (silver), France (bronze), Korea, Japan, Canada, Germany and Russia.
In men’s team epee, the top eight included Switzerland (gold), Korea (silver), Russia (bronze), France, Hungary, Italy, China and USA.
Complete results from the 2018 Fencing World Championships may be found here for women’s team foil and here for men’s team epee. Complete event information may be found at the official event web site.