Fencing Day 3 Review: Italian makes Foil history

(BEIJING, August 11) -- Italian Valentina Vezzali made Olympic Fencing history at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games with her third Olympic Gold medal in Women's Individual Foil.

Vezzali's medal set a new Olympic record as the first fencer in Olympic history to win three Individual Foil gold medals at three consecutive Olympics - Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008.

Vezzali, Giovanna Trillini and Margherita Granbassi kept Italy's dream of a podium sweep alive by advancing to three of the four available semifinal placings, only to have them crushed by Nam Hyun-hee in the second semifinal.

Vezzali's final with Nam Hyun-hee of the Republic of Korea was a dramatic bout in which Vezzali led 3-0 after the first round only to have Hyun-hee come back in the second (4-3). In the third round the result was tied at 5-5, 29 seconds out from the finish.

With four seconds to go, Vezzali attacked her opponent directly to bring the score to 6-5 and secure the gold medal. Vezzali was carried off the piste by the jubilant head coach of Italy's Women's Foil team, Andrea Magro.

"In the beginning I was extremely nervous. I kept thinking, 'this is such a good chance and I have to grasp it'. In the third round, when there was only 27 seconds left, I had a perfect chance to score but I didn't. I failed to initiate attacks when I should have," Hyun-hee said after the bout.

Granbassi led in the bronze medal bout against Trillini from the first touch to close the first round at 5-3. Trillini was determined to make up the point difference and fought against Granbassi to draw level at 5-5. However, Granbassi was not to be denied and secured victory at 15-12 to win her first Olympic medal.

Ten years Granbassi's senior, Trillini's fourth place finish is a slide down the ladder after winning four consecutive Olympic medals in Individual Foil from 1992 to 2004. To date, Trillini's best Olympic result is her Barcelona 1992 gold medal.

Vezzali's opponents were only able to pull off a total of 13 hits from a possible 42 touches against the Italian, who sacrificed only three points to Magdalena Mroczkiewicz of Poland to finish 15-3 in her round of 32 bout. She then defeated Zhang Lei of China 10-7 and Hungarian fencer Edina Knapek 15-3.

Seven-time Olympic medalist Trillini needed less than 16 minutes of the 27 at her disposal to win three assaults and book a place in the final four.

Before the finals, Granbassi expressed her delight at the prospect of an all Italian podium, saying, "It is one of our dreams." The young Hun-hee put paid to that after all.

The final of the Team Foil event will take place at the Fencing Hall on August 16.