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Olympic silver medalist Dong Zhaozhi fulfilled China's dream of individual fencing gold at the World University Games Thursday evening.
The 27-year-old Dong gave a 15-8 final defeat to his teammate Wang Haibin, also veteran of the team foil silver-winning squad in the Sydney Olympic Games.
If compared with Wang, who won clinched a close victory over Italian Lorenzo Mammi in the semi-final, Dong was fortunate enough because his semi-final rival Vadim Aioupov of Russia quitted the match after straining knee.
China sent a strong team to the World University Games, scheming for the country's first gold of individual fencing competition.
Chinese fencers, led by well-known athlete Luan Jujie, only got the women's foil team title at the Universiade in 1983.
"We previously expected the men's team foil title rather than the individual gold," said Wang Jian, team manager of the Chinese national fencing team.
"Therefore," he said, "the individual gold and silver are unexpected gain of the Chinese delegation."
Some world-leading fencers participated in the individual foil competition, including Salvatore Sanzo of Italy, ranked second by the International Fencing Federation, sixth-ranked Lars Schache of Germany, 12th-ranked Mark Marsi of Hungary and 15th Mikhail Krinitsyn of Russia.
However, the well-known swordsmen were eliminated one by one in the competition this afternoon.
"I'm so excited to have the individual gold," said Dong, adding that he eased all tense when fighting with the same-aged teammate in the final.
(Xinhua News Agency 08/24/2001)
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