World number one Italy claimed gold in the final of the women’s epee with a 30-29 victory over France in a high-octane, sudden-death contest at the Paris Olympics yesterday. Poland took the bronze medal by beating China 32-31. France, who beat world number two South Korea and world number three Poland on their way to the final in the boiling-hot Grand Palais arena, opened a 19-15 lead but faded in the decisive moments. Defending champions Estonia had failed to qualify for the Olympics.
Meanwhile, Egyptian fencer Nada Hafez has revealed she competed at the Paris Olympics, reaching the last 16 in her event and defeating a higher-ranked rival on the way, while seven months pregnant.
Hafez, a three-time Olympian from Cairo, ranked 26th, beat American fencer Elizabeth Tartakovsky in the sabre event before succumbing to Hayoung Jeon of South Korea in the quarter finals on Monday. "Three times *Olympian* but this time carrying a little Olympian!” the 26-year-old said on Instagram late on Monday. "What appears to you as two players...they were actually three! It was me, my competitor, and my yet-to-come to our world, little baby!” she wrote in English.