Olympic champion Áron Szilágyi earned World Cup victory in Budapest ©Getty Images

Olympic champion Áron Szilágyi earned home success at the International Fencing Federation (FIE) World Cup sabre event in Budapest.

Szilágyi was the favourite heading into the individual competition at the BOK Hall in the Hungarian capital.

The Tokyo 2020 gold medallist earned seven successive victories to finish top of the podium.

Szilágyi secured a 15-11 win over Italy’s Luigi Samele in the quarter-final stage, before beating South Korea’s Olympic team gold medallist Kim Jung-hwan 15-14 in the last four.

The victory over Kim proved Szilágyi’s narrowest of the competition, with the Hungarian then earning a comfortable 15-7 win over Italy’s Luca Curatoli in the final.

Curatoli was left settling for second place, with beaten semi-finalists Kim and Oh Sang-uk of South Korea ending joint third.

The result boosts Szilágyi’s status as the top ranked men’s sabre fencer, with Oh and Kim second and third overall.

Szilágyi was also a member of Hungary’s squad which earned team event honours.

The Hungarian team were 45-38 winners over France in the final.

Germany earned bronze with a 45-43 win over Romania.

The women’s sabre World Cup event saw Olympic bronze medallist Manon Apithy-Brunet triumph in Istanbul.

Apithy-Brunet was the highest ranked fencer competing in Turkey, due to a ban on Russian athletes imposed following the nation’s invasion of Ukraine.


Olympic silver medallist Sofya Velikaya and Tokyo 2020 champion Sofia Lokhanova, who were in first and third place in the overall rankings, were unable to compete as a result.

Apithy-Brunet now leads the rankings after triumphing in Istanbul.

The French fencer beat Spain’s Lucia Martin-Portugues 15-13 in the semi-finals to set up a meeting with her compatriot Anna Poupinet.

Poupinet beat Poland’s Malgorzata Kozaczuk 15-8 in the second semi-final.

Apithy-Brunet earned a 15-8 win in the all-French gold medal match.

Martin-Portugues and Kozaczuk finished third.

South Korea were the winners of the team event, with a narrow 45-43 triumph over Italy taking them into the final.

The South Korean team were dominant 45-31 winners over Spain in the final.

Italy and Hungary, who were beaten 45-44 by Spain in the last four, met in the bronze medal match.

Hungary clinched a narrow 45-44 victory.