In a high-level and memorable match, the Hungarian men’s sabre team was defeated in the final, earning a silver medal on Wednesday at the Paris Olympics. While the Hungarian sabreurs were attempting to defeat the probably-best-in-the-world South Koreans, Kristóf Milák won Hungary’s first silver medal in the 200-metre butterfly.
The Hungarian sabre team had previously defeated Italy 45–38 and Iran 45– 43. In the final, they faced the defending champions and 2012 Olympic winners, South Korea, who had progressed past Canada and France. This was the Asian team’s second Olympic gold in a row, after winning in 2012 (men’s sabre was not included in the 2016 Games).
The Grand Palais remained packed for the evening session after the French team comfortably defeated Iran in the bronze match. The South Korean supporters were dominant in the stands, evident in the loud and visible celebration following each point.
The finalists made their appearance from a large side balcony before descending a wide staircase to the piste. The first bout was fought by Áron Szilágyi against Park Sang-won, with Szilágyi narrowly losing 5–4, followed by Krisztián Rabb’s close defeat by Oh Sang-uk. Next, András Szatmári faced Gu Bon-gil, continuing the tight contest, which was briefly interrupted at a score of 9–10. The crowd grew increasingly vocal, with many rising to their feet and chanting ‘allez, les Bleus, allez, les Bleus’ as they watched Léon Marchand’s victory over Kristóf Milák in the 200-metre butterfly final on their devices.
Shortly thereafter, the match resumed, with Szatmári losing 5–3 to Gu Bon-gil, making the score 11–15 after the first round. Rabb, who had performed admirably against the Iranians, continued to impress, reducing the deficit with a 6–5 victory over Park. Following this, Szilágyi faced Do Kyung-dong, who had replaced Gu. The bout ended 5–5, with a contentious call as Szilágyi’s defence near the edge of the piste was ruled a point for the South Korean, confirmed by video review. Szatmári and Oh continued to raise the level of the match with spectacular parry-riposte exchanges, with Szatmári winning 7–5, bringing the score to 29–30 after the second round.
In the seventh bout, Rabb struggled to find effective actions against the even faster Do, failing to score, and significantly widening the gap. Szatmári attempted to come back from 29–35 against Park but fell further behind. The triple Olympic champion in individual events, Szilágyi, started his bout against Oh Sang-uk at 33–40. He scored three touches, but his opponent matched him, including a disputed third touch that Szilágyi believed was clearly a parry-riposte. In the thrilling conclusion,
the Hungarian star gave his all, but the equally world-class opponent did not falter, scoring the winning touch at 41–44.
The Hungarian team had previously lost to the South Koreans in three World Championship finals but defeated them in Milan last year. This time, the Asians took their revenge. Aware of the challenging match ahead, the South Korean team cheered after each point enthusiastically and joyfully celebrated with their fans at the end. Before this, the Hungarian men’s sabre team last reached the final in 1996 in Atlanta, where the team of Csaba Köves, Bence Szabó, and coach József Navarette lost to the Russians, also earning a silver medal.
The men’s sabre fencers secured the Hungarian delegation’s third medal in Paris. Last Saturday, Eszter Muhari won a bronze in épée.
Merely forty minutes earlier, Kristóf Milák won the silver medal in the 200-metre butterfly. The 24-year-old world and Olympic record holder took almost a year off after the national championships in April last year. Following his return, numerous rumours circulated about him not having done enough training, but he proved on Tuesday in both the heats and the semi-finals that there were no serious issues with his form, as he comfortably had the best performance on both occasions.
In Wednesday’s final, the fans were eager to see the showdown between home favourite Léon Marchand and Milák. The Paris La Défense Arena was almost completely filled—only a few seats remained empty. The much-anticipated encounter took place during the second final of the evening programme.
After leading his main rival the first 150 metres, Milák could not keep up with Marchand in the last 50 metres and finished second with a time of 1:51.75.
Marchand won with the best performance of his life, setting an Olympic record of 1:51.21,
which was four-hundredths of a second better than Milák’s time in Tokyo. The Hungarian swimmer sat on the lane rope for several seconds, in clear disbelief of what had happened. This marks Milák’s third Olympic medal, as he had also finished second in the 100m butterfly three years ago in the Japanese capital. Following the race, Milák was unavailable for interviews.
‘I have seen many of his races, and I consider Kristóf Milák to be much faster than me, so I tried to stay as close to him as possible at the 150-metre mark, and then give everything I had until the finish. I was able to keep up with him well because he was far from his world record, and I was able to gain a lot of time on him with my underwater swimming. I really enjoyed this race, and I also managed to significantly improve my personal best,’ Léon Marchand said at the post-race press conference to M4 Sport’s on-site team.
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