István Tarjányi finished in seventh place at the Paris Paralympic fencing competition.
After a 15-8 win over Alderete of Argentina, he lost 15-9 to Feng of China in the next round. Feng later won a gold medal, as he did in Tokyo. Although there were some controversial decisions, unfortunately they were not in our favour. In the consolation round, he won 15-6 against Amelio Castro, but lost 15-12 to France's Vallet, whom he had beaten all the time before. The home court and home crowd combined with non-neutral judging made things difficult.
His coach, Béla Pákey, wrote: "Pisti lost to Feng from China, who won gold in Paris today after Tokyo. All this after 3-4 controversial decisions, not in our favour. In the consolation final against the Frenchman Vallet, he did not manage to win, although he had never lost to him before. Home ground, home crowd, non-neutral refereeing. I'm not writing this to explain ourselves. For a Paralympic Games to be a great success, everything has to go right. Good form, lucky draw, neutral judging. Today we only had the first of these. I think that was all we could get out of today. And I'm incredibly proud of you, István Tarjányi, for bringing that out of yourself."
István Tarjányi also qualified in the duel event, which will take place on 4 September. Congratulations to him!
Photo by Béla Pákey private archive
