Italy gold medal in women's epee
The quartet of Alberta Santuccio, Rossella Fiamingo, Giulia Rizzi and Mara Navarria gives fencing its first gold in this Olympic expedition
3' min read
3' min read
To the last strike. At the Grand Palais, where in an endless echo of what happens in all the venues the spectators wanted to intone the Marseillaise, the notes of Mameli's anthem resound instead. In Paris the tricolour waves high, but it is the white, red and green one. The French one is a little below, in the space reserved for silver. Italy's women's epee becomes all gold.
In the marvellous facility, just a few metres from the Champs-Elysées and with the five-ring Eiffel Tower in the background, Alberta Santuccio, Rossella Fiamingo, Giulia Rizzi and Mara Navarria made a magic impression, turning the continuous roar of the eight thousand spectators who were the hosts into a deafening silence. 30-29 in the overtime (the extra minute) with Santuccio's last, wonderful hit.
This was the result of a final that, at dinnertime on a very hot summer evening, made Italy rejoice. The Italian medals table, ever more glittering, rose to eleven medals: three gold, four silver and four bronze.
Earlier in the day, the Azzurri, the number 1 seed in the eight-man roster, had first scrambled Egypt 39-26 and then China 45-24 (later defeated by Poland in the bronze medal final). In the final, after Santuccio's good start (3-2), it was the second and third bouts that pushed the French to the first substantial lead (9-5). At that point, then, the Italian coach Dario Chiadò tried to shuffle the cards, inserting the reserve Navarria in place of Fiamingo who had closed on 0-3 her fraction against Coraline Vitalis: a decisive decision.
The comeback and overtaking
.It was first Rizzi, with a 5-2 seventh bout against Coralis herself, who brought the Italians close to the transalpine (21-20). But then Navarria's masterpiece proved Chiadò right, closing the eighth bout with a 24-23 lead.
