All women's individual epee events, from round one to the final, took place on the Saturday.

Differt started the women's individual event in Paris by winning her opening round, round of 16 and quarter final clashes, and so progressing to the semifinals.

Even though she lost to world number one Vivian Kong in that semi, she still had a shot at bronze in the 3rd-4th place playoff bout, which started at 9.40 p.m. Estonian time.

Differt, 34, was Estonia's sole hope in the women's epee this time around; none of the four-person team which took gold, and in the individual event bronze, in Tokyo in 2021 are taking part in Paris.

Differt's is coached by Helen Nelis-Naukas, and Kaido Kaaberma, coach of the medals-winning team in Tokyo, is accompanying Differt as team lead-cum-equipment adjuster.

Opening heats

Differt won a closely fought first heat bout Saturday morning, winning 14:13 in extra time over Kang Young Mi (South Korea).

After the bout Differt told ERR: "Things ended up exciting again."

Round of 16

This set her up with a round of 16 clash with Alicja Klasik (Poland).

While this match started fairly evenly, the Estonian took a 7:5 lead, only for Klasik to pull back and take the tense match to extra time.

After 32 seconds of extra time had passed, Differt made a decisive shot after a tense match to win 11:10.

Quarter finals

Differt next faced Andrea Santuccio (Italy) in the quarter finals, again winning by a narrow margin, 10:9 in extra time

Semi-finals

And so by Saturday evening Differt was in the semi-finals, facing world number one Vivian Kong of Hong Kong.

Again, things were close, and by the end of the second period, Kong was 8:7 up.

Kong also started the last period with a jab, but Differt managed to reach a 9:9 tie.

However, Kong rallied towards the end, finishing 15:11 up and meaning Differt had to fence for bronze, in the third-fourth place playoff game, which started at 9.40 p.m. Estonian time.

Eszter Muhar had gone down 15:9 against Auriane Mallo-Breton (France) in the other semi-final.

Bronze medal bout

Differt was thus in with a shot at matching Kristina Lehis' individual bronze in Tokyo in 2021.

Muhari started off strongly in the first (of three) three-minute period and was 4:3 up by the end, but Differt was able to mount a comeback to win 5:4 up in the second period, taking the scoreline to eight each.

A very tense third period followed, including for coach Nelis-Naukas, and at one point Differt had a two-point lead. However, Muhari kept up her momentum and tied things up both in the period (6:6) and regular time (14:14).

Sudden death extra time beckoned, but the Hungarian fencer got in her shot first, hitting Differt's upper thigh to take the point, and with it the match and medal.

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