The 2002 World Fencing Championships were held in Lisbon, Portugal. The event took place from August 18 to August 23, 2002.
Overview Lisbon obtained the right to organize the championships over Bari, Italy. The event was first to take place from August 12 to August 18, but was reported a week later at the request of the main sponsor and of the television stations, which feared poor audience figures.
84 countries–a record at the time–took part in the championships. The competition saw the clear domination of Russia, who came away with nine medals, including six golds. Stanislav Pozdniakov and Svetlana Boyko obtained a double gold haul respectively in men's sabre and women's foil. Boiko shared the podium with teammate Yekaterina Yusheva, who in quarter-finals had put an end to Valentina Vezzali's streak of gold medals in 1999, 2000, and 2001. Pavel Kolobkov earned a gold medal in men's épée, eight years after his last major title and with a very limited preparation: he was then working as a fencing coach in Boston and rarely took part in Fencing World Cup events. Russia also prevailed in women's team sabre, overcoming Hungary in the final. Ironically, these two countries were the most adamant against the introduction of women's sabre at the Olympics.
The Lisbon championships proved however a disappointment for France, whose medals tally dropped from ten at Nîmes 2001 to five. The French preparation for the championships had been affected by a personal conflict between Philippe Omnès, director of fencing of the French federation, and Christian Bauer, national coach for sabre, as well as the positive drugs test of Laura Flessel-Colovic a few days before the competition. France boasted only one gold medal in men's team épée, won against Russia.
The remaining medals were relatively spread out between other nations. Romania claimed three bronze medals: one in women's team foil, Laura Badea's first medal after her return from maternity leave, one in men's sabre for Olympic champion Mihai Covaliu and one in women's épée for 17-year-old Ana Maria Brânză. The main surprise however was the growing power of Asian fencing: Korea's Hyun Hee defeated successively favourites Laura Flessel and Imke Duplitzer to earn the gold in women's épée, while China's Tan Xue claimed the title after seeing of previous incumbents Anne-Lise Touya and Elena Jemayeva.
Medal table
Medal summary Men's events Event Gold Silver BronzeÉpée Pavel Kolobkov Fabrice Jeannet Ku Kyo-dong Vitaly ZakharovFoil Simone Vanni Andre Wessels Piotr Kielpikowski Wu HanxiongSabre Stanislav Pozdnyakov Julien Pillet Mihai Covaliu Luigi TarantinoTeam Épée Benoît JanvierFabrice JeannetJean-Michel LucenayHugues Obry Pavel KolobkovSergey KochetkovAleksey SelinVyacheslav Selin Gu Gyo-DongKim Jeong-GwanLee Sang-YeopYang Roy-SungTeam FoilRalf BißdorfDominik BehrAndré WeßelsLars SchacheBrice GuyartLoïc AttelyJean-Noël FerrariFranck BoidinJavier MenéndezLuis CaplliureJosé Francisco GuerraJavier García DelgadoTeam SabreAleksey DyachenkoAleksey YakimenkoStanislav PozdniakovSergey SharikovGiampiero PastoreGiacomo GuidiAldo MontanoLuigi TarantinoDennis BauerMichael HermHarald StehrAlexander Weber
Women's events Event Gold Silver BronzeÉpée Hyun Hee Imke Duplitzer Ana Maria Brânză Britta HeidemannFoil Svetlana Boyko Yekaterina Yusheva Edina Knapek Aida MohamedSabre Tan Xue Yelena Jemayeva Cécile Argiolas Yelena NechayevaTeam ÉpéeHajnalka KiralyTímea NagyHajnalka TóthMaarika VõsuIrina EmbrichOlga AleksejevaHeidi RohiLuo XiaojuanLi NaShen WeiweiZhong WeipingTeam FoilSvetlana BoykoYekaterina YushevaJulia KhakimovaOlga LobyntsevaSylwia GruchałaMagdalena MroczkiewiczAnna RybickaMałgorzata Wojtkowiak Laura BadeaRoxana ScarlatCristina StahlReka SzaboTeam SabreYelena NechayevaMargarita ZhukovaIrina BazhenovaNatalia MakeyevaEdina CsabaOrsolya NagyAnnamária NagyGabriella SznopekYelena AmirovaYelena JemayevaAnzhela VolkovaYana Siukayeva
References
Sources FIE Results