Siklósi delights home crowd with men’s individual épée gold at World Championships in Budapest

In front of a delighted and appreciative home crowd, the 21-year-old defied the odds throughout the competition before he edged out Russia’s Sergey Bida in a hard-fought final.

The second evening of finals competition also saw Russia’s two-time world champion and Olympic gold medallist Inna Deriglazova earn her third women’s individual foil world championship title by beating France’s Pauline Ranvier
In total, 367 men and women participated in the two competitions and it was Siklosi who earned the biggest cheer of the evening from the home crowd after a fine performance throughout the competition which culminated in the closely-fought final. Bida proved a worthy opponent, so much so the bout was decided by a single touch with Siklosi taking gold by a 15-14 scoreline.

Earlier, the Hungarian beat Italian Andrea Santarelli, 15-9 in the semi-finals, this after Santarelli defeated the reigning world champion, Yannick Borel of France, 15-12. Bida earned his shot at gold by eliminating Ukrainian Igor Reizlin in the semi-final round, 15-10.

In the women’s individual foil competition, Olympic gold medallist Deriglazova maintained her dominance of the event as she retained her title.

The 29-year-old beat French opponent Ranvier 15-11 in the gold medal bout, a triumph which saw her clinch her third consecutive world foil crown, adding to her Olympic title and the European gold medal she claimed last year.
She justified her status as the favourite with what was a composed performance against Ranvier, whose silver was her first individual medal at a World Championships.

The Russian had earlier progressed through the semi-finals at the expense of Italy’s Elisa Di Francisca thanks to a 15-13 scoreline. Ranvier also defeated another Italian in the other semi-final, taking out two-time world champion Arianna Errigo, 15-13.