Heart-pounding Italy! Spectacular comeback—the Azzurri take gold in the team foil event

On the piste in Hong Kong, at the 2026 World Fencing Championships, Italy achieved one of the sport’s most brilliant feats. The men’s team foil final, which seemed to be slipping away from the hosts, turned into an Italian masterpiece in the very final moments of the match: the Azzurri clinched the world title by turning around a contest that, after seven bouts, appeared to be all but decided.

Hong Kong, led by star fencer Cheung Ka Long, surged to an 8-point lead in the fifth bout, controlling the match with authority. Just when the final seemed decided, however, Tommaso Marini narrowed the gap with a 7-5 run against Olympic champion Cheung, then Guillaume Bianchi sealed the victory with a memorable round in which he defeated Choi 9-4, securing the final 45-44 score that sent the Italian bench into a frenzy of joy.

This marks Italy’s 20th world gold medal in men’s foil, the second in a row after Tbilisi 2025. In addition to Marini and Bianchi, Filippo Macchi also took to the piste, while Tommaso Martini remained on the bench for the gold medal final but was nonetheless a key player in the earlier rounds.

For the Italian team, this is the second gold medal at this edition of the World Championships, following Martina Favaretto’s triumph in the women’s foil. The overall medal count rises to six, with four silver medals (Davide Di Veroli and Giulia Rizzi in their respective individual épée tournaments, and Filippo Macchi and Arianna Errigo in the individual foil tournaments), rounding out a performance that confirms the depth and consistency of Italian fencing.