Just over an hour after the semi-final loss, Tibor Andrászszewski of Pastra was the first to be called upon again, who should have defeated Mohamed Elsaghid of Egypt, who lost 15:9 to home favourite Yannick Borel, in the bronze medal fight. The fencers are in Paris for the coveted medal. Elsaghid, still only 21 but already a two-time senior continental champion, tried mostly with leg kicks at the start of the match, but Andrászszewski managed to neutralise them with good footwork. The tension was almost palpable, while both fencers tried to avoid unnecessary risks, we did not see many clear actions. The first stage saw only five goals, two of them for the team (3:2). But the important point is that Andrászszewski was in the lead.
However, the continuation was postponed for technical reasons, and the Hungarian fencer had to change weapons again – this was a good sign in the early afternoon with the first two aces, but he also withdrew it for tactical reasons. But this time, it seemed that technology was already playing tricks on the BVSC opponent. Although he acted more aggressively, after an inaccurate strike, the Egyptian countered him with the body, thus losing the advantage. Almost two minutes of the duel passed without another strike, so they were warned for passivity. Andrászvy seemed to be able to handle the increasing pressure better, regaining the lead towards the end of the second stage, but he was unable to increase the lead (3:4).
And he did it instead at the start of the third three minutes, although this time the Egyptian advanced with more courage. The break was remarkably good for the African, who organized his thoughts and became more dangerous, his attacks becoming unpredictable and unscheduled, which quickly overwhelmed Andrászvy, and they were level again at 5:5. They went to the hairline with a one-point Hungarian advantage, and Elszajed hit his legs again, but fortunately with a similar score as at the beginning of the set. They were warned again for passing, but at this point there were only 42 seconds left in the duel. Of course, we saw in the semi-finals how far it can go, but how far it can go…
Andrászsev was pushed to the end of the match, and the Egyptian equalized again with 14 seconds left after an escape. The dramatic ending was inevitable this time too, as they even pulled away from each other in the last 2-3 seconds. The decision was made to show for a minute. Sajid did everything he could to surprise Andrászsev, and was given a yellow card, while it seemed that he was not successful: he was completely stuck at the end of the last, but when the green light flashed indicating a Hungarian goal, the red flashed with it. They stood back in the starting position, and Sajid hit Andrászsev's leg from behind at the end of the code change, which led to a back-and-forth sawing movement, but according to the rules, he did not hit the mark. A few seconds later, the Hungarian fencer did the same – although at least he did not start a theatrical celebration before his time. There were two seconds left, two teams were stung, and the nerve-wracking battle was not over yet, but moments later the Egyptian struck Andraszvy's upper body in a last desperate move, thus winning the bronze medal 8:7.
Bronze match
Tibor Andraszewski – Muhammad al-Sajid 7:8 – in gold ink
