Russian fencers dominate competition among surprising upsets
Russia grabbed a total of seven medals in nine days of competition in Rio
The Russians dominated the fencing competition with seven medals and four gold medals to their name (Photo: Getty Images/Tom Pennington)
Russia has emerged as a new Olympic fencing powerhouse, topping the standings with seven medals in total after nine days of intense action at Carioca Arena 3.
Four of those medals were gold, going to Russia's men foil team, women's sabre team and individual fencers Inna Deriglazova and Yana Egorian won their events.
The women's sabre invidual event even ended up with a one-two punch for Russia, as Egorian pulled off a surprise win over world no.1 and teammate Sofya Velikaya. Later in the week, the two Russian sabreurs took home gold in the women's sabre team event.
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The women's sabre individual event final was just one of the many upsets that marked the fencing programme at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, as the London 2012 champions (individual and teams) failed to defend their titles, except for Aron Szilagyi of Hungary who won back-to-back gold in men's sabre individual.
In the women's foil individual event, world champion Deriglazova stole the crown from London 2012 gold medallist Elisa DI Francisca of Italy.
In the bronze medal bout, Tunisia's Ines Boubakri defeated Russian Aida Shanaeva, becoming the first African female fencer to win an Olympic medal.
France's Daniel Jerent and Italy's Marco Fichera square off in the gold medal match of the men's epee team competition on 14 August. (Photo: Getty Images/Tom Pennington)
World no.7 Emese Szasz of Hungary won gold in the women's epee individual, edging out two-time world champion Italian Rossella Fiamingo after an extraordinary comeback.
World no.11 Daniele Garozzo of Italy defeated world no.1 American Alexander Massialas in the gold medal bout of the men's foil individual.
At his first Olympic Games, 20-year-old youngster Park Sangyoung of the Republic of Korea beat 41-year-old world champion, five-time Olympian and the oldest fencer at Rio 2016 Hungarian Geza Imre to land gold in the men's individual epee.
Top favourite and world no.1 Gauthier Grumier of France had to be happy with the bronze, but later on the French epeeist managed to win gold defeating Italy with his teammates in the men's épée team event.
Romanian women's épée team overturned the world rankings and reversed the result of the 2015 world championships by beating China to the gold medal.
The most dramatic event of them all was arguably the men's foil team with Russia snatching gold over France. The Russian team delivered a stunning comeback in the final stages, when from being nine points down, they collected 29 touches against France's 16.
See all the fencing results here
At the London 2012 Olympic Games, Russia ended only seventh in the fencing medal table winning three medals of which none was gold.
Four years ago Italy led the pack with seven medals (three gold, two silver and two bronze), while at Rio 2016 the most successful country in fencing at the Olympic Games only finished third behind Russia and Hungary with four medals.
Italian fencers failed to defend five medals of the six they contested, as just Garozzo was able to win a decisive final bout for the only gold Italy achieved at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in the sport.
