Bronze medal for Hablützel-Bürki
Swiss fencing star Gianna Hablützel-Bürki has added an individual world championship medal to her impressive haul of trophies, after winning bronze in the epée event in Nîmes on Saturday.
The 31-year-old mother from Basel once again demonstrated her flexibility and technical brilliance in winning four qualifying bouts and then showed iron resolve in the quarter-finals when she came back from 12-9 down to level at 12-12 before completing victory in overtime.
The Olympic vice champion was eventually stopped in the semi-finals by French ace Laura Flessel, who went on to take the silver medal – losing in the final to Germany’s Claudia Bokel.
As well as her two Olympic silver medals from Sydney, Hablützel-Bürki possesses four individual silver medals from the European Championships, four World Cup titles, a European Championship team gold medal won last year and a European team bronze dating back to 1989.
Promising teenage star Sophie Lamon was the second best Swiss fencer on Saturday, going out in the last 16 after losing 15-11 against Russia’s fourth placed Olympian Tatjana Logunova.
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