The Estonian team of Katrina Lehis, Julia Beljajeva, Erika Kirpu and Irina Embrich won the women’s épée team gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
The Estonian team of Katrina Lehis, Julia Beljajeva, Erika Kirpu and Irina Embrich took the women’s épée team gold in a 36-32 win over the Republic of Korea at Makuhari Messe.
It was Estonia’s first gold medal at an Olympic Games since Beijing 2008.
It was also Estonia’s first gold medal in the sport at the Olympic Games and comes just days after Katrina Lehis, who was also part of the team win, won the country’s first medal in fencing – she won a bronze in the women’s épée individual on the second day of the games.
The Estonian women’s épée team has had outstanding results before, winning the silver medal at the World Fencing Championship in 2014 and gold at the World Fencing Championships in 2017.
The team’s coach is épée fencer Kaido Kaaberma, who won the bronze in the épée individual competition at the 1999 World Fencing Championship and the silver in 2001 with the Estonian épée team at the World Fencing Championships in Hungary.
The Estonian team’s win currently ranks Estonia 20th in the countries’ Olympic medal count.
The épée is the largest and heaviest of the three weapons used in the sport of fencing. The modern épée derives from the 19th-century épée de combat, a weapon which itself derives from the French small sword.
Read more: Estonia at the Olympics.
Cover: The Estonian team of Katrina Lehis, Julia Beljajeva, Erika Kirpu and Irina Embrich took the women’s épée team gold in a 36-32 win over the Republic of Korea at Makuhari Messe. Photo by the Estonian Olympic Committee.
Congratulations Estonia! Keep it up.
Valdo Saat.
(England)