Áron Szilágyi Crowned as Saber Fencing World Champion

Hungary’s three-time Olympic champion Áron Szilágyi defeated France's Maxime Pianfetti 15:14 in the men's individual saber final of the World Fencing Championships in the Egyptian capital Cairo this Monday, taking a title hitherto missing from his impressive medal collection.

For a place in the quarter-finals, Szilágyi competed with fellow Hungarian fencer András Szatmári. Szilágyi quickly took a 6:1 lead and held on to it to win the match 15:9.

In the last eight, he beat 7th seed Pietro Torre of Italy 15-8 and then in the semi-finals, he overpowered Sandro Bazadze of Georgia, 15-11 to reach the final. Although Szilágyi has won three Olympic titles, he has never won more than bronze at the World Championships.

In the final, Szilágyi Áron took on Frenchman Maxime Pianfetti, who had been in good form all day. In a very tight final, the deciding shot was a decisive one, at 14-14 Áron Szilágyi was the faster and won the first individual world championship gold of his career.

For Áron Szilágyi, this was the only title missing from his showcase in the individual events. In the history of the Olympics, he has reached the top three times (2012, 2016, 2021) and also has one European Championship gold from 2015.