Brno’s Alexander Choupenitch has won the Czech Republic’s first Olympic fencing medal since 1908, taking the Bronze in the men’s individual foil in Tokyo earlier today. Photo Credit: Freepik / Illustrative Photo.
Brno, Jul 26 (BD) – The Czech Republic won its second medal of the Tokyo Olympics today, as Brno’s Alexander Choupenitch defeated Japanese fencer Takahiro Shikine by 15:8 in the third-place play-off to clinch the Bronze medal in the men’s individual foil.
27-year-old Choupenitch is the first Czech fencer to win an OIympic medal since Vilém Goppold von Lobsdorf led the team representing Bohemia to two Bronze medals in London in 1908. Improving on his elimination in the first round in Rio de Janeiro five years ago, Choupenitch won his first three duels, before losing in the semi-final to Cheung Ka Long of Hong Kong, who went on to take the Gold. However, Alexander recovered quickly from this setback to win the third-place decider comfortably against Shikine on his home turf.
Choupenitch was born and raised in Brno, the son of Belorussian opera singers from the Brno National Theatre. His family has a heritage of fencing prowess; his step-grandmother, Tatyana Petrenko-Samusenko, was a three-time Olympic gold medallist in the same event for the USSR. Choupenitch himself previously won a Bronze medal in the European Championships in 2018.
Choupenitch’s success followed that of canoeist Lukáš Rohan, who took the first Czech medal a few hours earlier, winning Silver in the Men’s Slalom C1.
