Olympics-Fencing-US win historic gold in women's foil team event

By Juliette Jabkhiro

PARIS (Reuters) -The United States team triumphed in the women's foil on Thursday, taking their first Olympic title in the event with a win against the world number ones Italy at the Paris Games.

Lee Kiefer had already won individual gold on Sunday before leading her team to the 45-39 victory.

"It doesn't feel like real life," said Kiefer, who cried on the podium as the U.S. anthem played in the Grand Palais.

"Even when we made the finals, and we're walking out, in this beautiful venue, I was like 'this is not real life, I can't believe we are here!', and that joy kind of calmed me.

"I was excited to fence, and I think you could see that in our whole team."

First-time Olympian Lauren Scruggs, who won silver in the individual, confirmed her breakthrough status. She scored five touches early on against Italy's Martina Favaretto, giving her team a comfortable lead.

In the last round, she was not unsettled by a fiery Arriana Errigo, out for revenge after their previous face-off, and scored the last five decisive touches.

"She's a legend," Scruggs said of Errigo. "I'm sure (the Italians) wanted to come out on top. She was fighting, but I doubled down and finished it up."

"Winning that last touch was just surreal. I'm very shocked, it's unbelievable to make history."

The United States won a silver medal at the 2008 Games in Beijing.

Errigo told reporters she was disappointed to have lost the final, but that it was "a beautiful silver medal".

Italy's coach Stefano Cerioni said though gold would have been better, he was happy his team won silver.

"My team did great, the Americans just did better," he said.

Japan claimed bronze, beating Canada 33-32 in a tight bout.

"I really was hoping that we could win a medal," Canada's Eleanor Harvey told reporters.

"But when we beat France, we already remade (Canadian) history for best result for women's foil at an Olympics. So that's something to be proud of."

France, the silver medallists in Tokyo, did not make it past the quarter-finals, bowing 38-36 to Canada who were riding the high of Harvey's individual bronze medal.

The French fencers, in tears, thanked a partisan crowd, who sang the national anthem "La Marseillaise" after the team won a bout against Poland that gave them the fifth spot.

(Reporting by Juliette Jabkhiro; Editing by Ed Osmond and Alison Williams)