🇺🇸 TEAM USA SURGE TO GOLD AT FUJAIRAH WOMEN’S EPEE WORLD CUP
Updated: Aug 5
FUJAIRAH, UAE - 11 JANUARY 2026
The United States Women’s Epee team captured their first podium finish of the season in spectacular style, claiming the gold medal at the Fujairah World Cup. Entering the event as the sixth seeds, the American squad—Fallon, Husisian, Nixon, and Machulsky—produced a series of gritty performances to upset the top-seeded Koreans in the final.
Korea took the silver medal, improving on their fourth-place finish at the season opener in Vancouver. Meanwhile, Estonia continued their high-level consistency, securing bronze to make it back-to-back podiums following their gold medal in Canada last month. Hungary finished in fourth place after a long day of upsets in the bottom half of the draw.
Path to the Podium
Team USAÂ demonstrated exceptional tactical growth throughout the day. After comfortable early wins over Iran and Canada, they navigated a defensive 29-23 quarter-final against Germany. In the semi-finals, they overcame Hungary 45-37, pulling away in the middle of the match to establish a comfortable cushion. The final against top seeds Korea was a classic see-saw battle; Korea led 15-14 early on, but the Americans snatched a 27-26 lead in the middle bouts and dominated the closing stages to secure a 45-40 victory.
Korea (Song, Lim, Lee, and Park) reached the final following the tightest match of the tournament—a 31-30 semi-final win over rivals Estonia. The scores were deadlocked at 8-8 and 19-19 through the first six bouts before the Koreans found a crucial three-point edge in the seventh leg, which they defended until the final whistle.
Estonia (Embrich, Beljajeva, and Lehis) bounced back from their semi-final heartbreak to claim bronze against Hungary. The Estonians took immediate control of the play-off, leading 13-8 after the first three legs. Despite a spirited final-leg rally from Hungary’s individual bronze medallist Eszter Muhari, Olympic medallist Katrina Lehis held firm to secure a 34-27 win for Estonia.
Hungary (Muhari, Dekany, Buki, and Gachalyi) reached the semi-finals as the number 10 seeds. Their path was cleared somewhat by eighteenth seeds Sweden, who caused the upset of the morning by knocking out the number two seeds, France, in the round of 16. Hungary ended the Swedish run in the quarter-finals before falling to the USA and Estonia respectively.
