Foiling their rivals: ROC women’s team take home fencing gold after victory over France at Tokyo 2020

The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) secured another gold medal at the Tokyo 2020 Games, this time through a quartet of their women beating rivals France by a score of 45-34 in the foil fencing final on Thursday.

The team - Marta Martyanova, 22, Larisa Korobeynikova, 34, Adelina Zagidullina, 28, and Inna Deriglazova, 31 - have now cemented their place in Olympic and national history with their escapades in the Japanese capital.

Struggling with injury, the youngest player of the group Martyanova has been singled out for praise by putting in an "amazing" performance.

After their semi-final win against the United States, clinched 45-42, the team quoted Persian philosopher Omar Khayyam by saying:  "He who understands life is in no hurry."

Thanks to their latest triumph, the ROC leads the current edition of the athletics spectacle in this discipline.

They boast five medals overall - two gold, two silver and one bronze - while their nearest rivals Hungary have one of each.

This has led to onlookers remarking that the ROC team are "dominating women's fencing", after Sofia Pozdniakova scooped the highest accolade in the individual women's sabre fencing competition on Monday.