Fencing - Dominant women's team take Romania's first Rio medal

By Brad Haynes RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Romania took their first medal of the Rio Olympics on Thursday, as their women's epee team soundly beat China's defending champions to win the country's first-ever team fencing gold. Estonia just missed its first Olympic fencing medal as Russia won the bronze bout, racking up five medals in the sport over as many days, its best at the Games since at least 2000. With two of the world's ten best epee fencers coming into Rio, the Romanian women held a lead at the end of every bout and lost just three of 18 match-ups in the semi-final and final. The champions' biggest scare came against the U.S. team that took bronze in London and fought the Romanians to within a touch in the final bouts of their opening match. "They are so tough. They are so strong," said Romanian anchor Ana Maria Popescu, of the American team. "And they enjoy fencing. We didn't in the bout against them. We were so blocked." In the euphoria of beating the United States, Popescu leapt in the air and made an awkward landing, leaving her limping for the rest of the day on a painful ankle. The injury didn't stop her from finishing with a flourish, as she scored a leaping point in the closing seconds against China's Xu Anqi, who arrived in Rio ranked best in the world. "For me fencing is like a show, and you must do it until the end like a show," she said with a smile after limping off the arena floor. (Reporting by Brad Haynes; Editing by Bill Rigby)