Taking place at the Spodek Hall in Poland, the French were seeded fourth and started their campaign with a 45-27 win over Spain.

They followed that up with a 45-30 win against Poland before knocking out the top seeds Italy in the semi-finals, 45-37.

Playing in a format of three against three, repeating matches until one side reached 45 points, the French initially went behind in the final.

Pauline Ranvier lost 5-4 to Lee Kiefer in the first bout, before Ysaora Thibus put the French in command by moving the scores to 10-5 against Jacqueline Dubrovich.

Anita Blaze beat Iman Blow to make it 15-7 and after that the US did not look back, winning every subsequent match until that crucial 45 point mark was reached.

Having lost to France in the semi-finals, Italy bounced back to take the bronze with a 45-38 win over Russia.

Elsewhere on the FIE World Cup circuit, Russia came out on top in the men's team foil competition in Paris.

At the Stade Pierre de Coubertin they beat Italy in their final 45-40.

The match started badly for Italy when Alessio Foconi, who won the individual title yesterday, fell to a 5-1 defeat to Alexey Cheremisinov.

Italy picked up their first individual win of the tie in the third match when Giorgio Avola beat Dimitry Zherebchenko 4-1, but on the whole Russia were too good, and their win was sealed when Cheremisinov beat Daniele Garozzo.

In the bronze medal match the United States beat South Korea in a tighter contest, 45-41.