🇮🇹 ITALY CLAIMS WOMEN'S TEAM FOIL GOLD IN BUSAN

BUSAN, KOREA - 7 DECEMBER 2025

The World Number 1 Italian Women's Foil team continued their dominant season form, securing the gold medal at the Team World Cup in Busan. The squad, featuring Arianna Errigo, Martina Favaretto, individual champion Martina Batini, and Anna Cristino, defeated the World Number 2 team USA 45-38 in the final.

The USA team—comprising Lee Kiefer, Jaelyn Liu, Lauren Scruggs, and Carolina Stutchbury—claimed the silver medal after a strong run to the final which included victories over AIN, Spain, and hosts Korea.

The bronze medal was dramatically secured by the World Number 4 team, Japan. The Japanese team—Tsuji Sumire, individual silver medallist Ueno Yuka, Azuma Sera, and Kikuchi Komaki—won the third-place play-off against an impressive Korean team with a nail-biting 33-32 score.

Path to the Podium

Italy’s path to gold involved a decisive run through the field, with comfortable wins over Austria (45-10) and Hungary (44-32). Their semi-final against Japan was a tight affair, tied at 15-15 after six bouts, before the Italian team pulled ahead in the final third to win 30-20 on time.

The final against the USA was a tight battle early on, with the Americans holding a 15-14 lead after the first third. However, Italy made a strategic substitution, bringing on individual champion Batini, and powered through the middle and final bouts. With a standout performance from Anna Cristino, Italy secured the title 45-38.

The bronze medal match between Japan and the surprise semi-finalists, Korea, provided high drama. Korea, who had outperformed their World Ranking of 14 to defeat World Number 3 France and World Number 6 China, led for most of the match. Korea maintained a five-point lead (26-21) going into the final bout. Japan's Ueno Yuka then fenced an incredible final leg against Park J., winning 12-6 to overturn the deficit and clinch the bronze medal by a single point, 33-32.

Full results from the Busan Women's Foil Team World Cup are available here.