Épée, Individual, Men

At three previous Olympics Pavel Kolobkov has always won a medal although never a gold. His chances appeared to be good when he was made top seed at Sydney but few would have predicted the ease with which he would finally take the elusive Olympic title. Only once, in the quarter-final against Iván Trevejo of Cuba, did he ever look likely to be defeated. A hint of controversy hovered over the silver medallist Hugues Obry of France. In the semi-final against Switzerland’s Marcel Fischer he was awarded two penalty points when Fischer was alleged to have run into Obry. An angry Fischer accused the Frenchman of exaggerating the incident for his own benefit. Fischer suffered further heartbreak with a 15-14 defeat to Lee Sang-Gi in the bronze medal match.