Épée, Individual, Women

The two women who contested the final in Sydney, Tímea Nagy of Hungary and Switzerland’s Gianna Hablützel-Bürki, had been regular competitors at the top level of the sport but their presence in the gold medal match ahead of more fancied fencers was a major surprise. Hablützel-Bürki’s road to the final was the more tumultuous of the two as she won three of her four fights on decisive hits. Oddly her only clear victory came against top seed ldikó Mincza of Hungary. In the other half of the draw Nagy progressed with little fanfare to the semi-finals where she won a dramatic tie-breaker against reigning Olympic Champion Laura Flessel-Colovic. Tímea Nagy trailed in the early phase of the final but recovered to overcome the deficit and then pulled away to a lead she would not relinquish.

So it was that Nagy, whose reputation was made as a mainstay of the Hungarian squad in team competitions, became Sydney Olympic champion.