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Matej Koch made no secret of it, he really wanted to win the Budapest Grand Prix in front of a home crowd, he was very close to it, but the bronze medal is still a great result. Especially in light of the fact that as of today, our fencer also leads the world rankings individually.
As Matti Koch and David Nagy predicted, even after the Heidenheim competition that brought the team a gold medal and a guaranteed Olympic quota, you can't sit back, because the tasks come one after another. The first highlight of the weekend was the Westend Párbajőr GP in the BOK Hall, where the audience could only see the individual competition. A record number of 394 starters were registered in the men's competition.
So Saturday's qualifiers weren't an easy round either, and things certainly didn't go well from Vasas' point of view, as none of our competitors made it to the main draw. This was particularly bad news for David Nagy, who bid farewell to popular Ukrainian side Ryzlin relatively soon after the group stage.
Zsombor Bányai was the closest, crossing the main board with a smash, but was unable to jump to the final rung, and Italian Paolini proved he was one better than him with a smash. Looking at the others, Viktor Kulcár is 107th, Matej Çapai 111th, Kasaba Venevesi 121st, while Balint Bakos is 123rd.
World Champion mate hut But it's true that – thanks to his very high ranking in the world rankings – he wasn't even eliminated, so his big day came on Sunday, which finally made him really big.
Our domestic superiority began with a win over the Korean Lee on the 64 board, then he proved himself better than Zsombor Kesteli in a Hungarian home match, and among the sixteen we almost felt sorry for his Spanish opponent who showed nothing. Mercy. The momentum also continued against Portugal's Frazão, so a home semi-final against Gergely Seklos could follow, which the other Hungarian world champion won relatively smoothly after 7-7.
Photos: FIE
Matty, who won a brilliant bronze, rated us as follows:
– We had to wait a long time to reach the semi-finals, but this is the case in GPs. I suffered a lot during the break, I even needed magnesium, and my legs were cramping a lot. So I wasn't 100% ready against Jiri Sekolossi, but I really wanted to beat him. It didn't work out, I started out well, then I was able to catch up again at 7-7, but then all the fatigue of the day came out, I couldn't even change the door and window positions, and Jerry fought very well. He won, quite deservedly. It was good that Arpi Polgar Veres from the Vasas administration was present with Pášt at this meeting and he also supported him. As for his opponents, I was afraid of Zsombor Kizthili, as he beat me twice this year, and I often struggle against him in training, but now I have been able to be confident. This also gave impetus for more aces, and in the quarter-finals, the home crowd absolutely cheered me on against Frazão, which I always enjoy, they practically pushed themselves to win. It was a great moment when they celebrated with Jerry afterward!
For Matty, Monday also came as a special surprise, as the new world rankings were released:
– The greatest joy for me now is that I have jumped to the top of the world rankings with my first Grand Prix medal, it's official. Moreover, at the beginning of the season, there were not many opportunities to catch up with De Ferroli, but he succeeded. Of course, the end is not over yet, But I am very proud to consider myself the number one player on the team and individually at the moment. But life never stands still, this weekend also taught me many lessons, for example, that I still need to improve my endurance, so I will go to Margitsziget to run more and faster.
