| Date | 12 August 2008 | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Olympic | |
| Location | Guojia Huiyi Zhongxin, Beijing Aolinpike Gongyuan, Beijing | |
| Participants | 40 from 21 countries | |
| Format | Single-elimination tournament. | |
As in 2004, 1996 champion Stanislav Pozdnyakov of Russia arrived at the Olympic Games as the clear favourite for the title having won World Championship gold in both 2006 and 2007. In Athina he had failed to live up to expectations and exited at the quarter-final stage. Surely the same thing could not happen again? In fact it didn’t - but only because the Russian didn’t even get that far this time. Pozdnyakov’s conqueror was the French champion Nicolas Lopez who made the most of his opportunity by making a run to the final which also included a victory over Sydney Olympic champion Mihai Covaliu.
Lopez’s gold medal opponent was another surprise contender. Zhong Man, representing the host nation of China, was a distance runner turned basketball player turned fencer from the same Jiangsu Province that had produced Luan Jujie, the only other Chinese Olympic champion fencer. Zhong had been a solid if unspectacular competitor on the world scene until he won the Asian Championships earlier in 2008. He brought forward this rich vein of form to the Olympic Games. The Chinese and French fencers traded scores for the majority of the final and were tied at 4-all, 6-all and 9-all before Zhong went on a run of six successive scores to become the 1st Chinese male to win Olympic gold in the sport. The champion relaxed before bouts by watching a soap opera.
| Date | 12 August 2008 |
|---|---|
| Format | Winner of each match advanced to round two. |
| Date | 12 August 2008 |
|---|---|
| Format | Winner of each match advanced to round three. |
| Date | 12 August 2008 |
|---|---|
| Format | Winner of each match advanced to quarter-finals. |
| Match | Date/Time | Location | Competitor | NOC | Result | Competitor | NOC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bout #1 | 12 Aug 12:30 | Piste Yellow | Luigi Tarantino | 15 – 7 | Boris Sanson | |||
| Bout #2 | 12 Aug 12:30 | Piste Yellow | Zhong Man | 15 – 14 | Jaime Martí | |||
| Bout #3 | 12 Aug 12:30 | Piste Red | Keeth Smart | 15 – 10 | Áron Szilágyi | |||
| Bout #4 | 12 Aug 12:30 | Piste Red | Julien Pillet | 15 – 13 | Rareș Dumitrescu | |||
| Bout #5 | 12 Aug 12:50 | Piste Blue | Jorge Pina | 15 – 14 | Aldo Montano | |||
| Bout #6 | 12 Aug 12:50 | Piste Blue | Nicolas Lopez | 15 – 11 | Oh Eun-Seok | |||
| Bout #7 | 12 Aug 12:50 | Piste Green | Mihai Covaliu | 15 – 12 | Zhou Hanming | |||
| Bout #8 | 12 Aug 12:50 | Piste Green | Aliaksandr Buikevich | 15 – 14 | Nicolas Limbach |
| Date | 12 August 2008 |
|---|---|
| Format | Winner of each match advanced to semi-finals. |
| Match | Date/Time | Location | Competitor | NOC | Result | Competitor | NOC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bout #1 | 12 Aug 13:20 | Piste Yellow | Zhong Man | 15 – 13 | Luigi Tarantino | |||
| Bout #2 | 12 Aug 13:20 | Piste Red | Julien Pillet | 15 – 13 | Keeth Smart | |||
| Bout #3 | 12 Aug 13:20 | Piste Blue | Nicolas Lopez | 15 – 10 | Jorge Pina | |||
| Bout #4 | 12 Aug 13:20 | Piste Green | Mihai Covaliu | 15 – 13 | Aliaksandr Buikevich |
| Date | 12 August 2008 |
|---|---|
| Format | Winner of each match advanced to final pool. |
| Match | Date/Time | Location | Competitor | NOC | Result | Competitor | NOC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bout #1 | 12 Aug 19:00 | Piste Final | Zhong Man | 15 – 12 | Julien Pillet | |||
| Bout #2 | 12 Aug 19:20 | Piste Final | Nicolas Lopez | 15 – 13 | Mihai Covaliu |
| Date | 12 August 2008 |
|---|
| Match | Date/Time | Location | Competitor | NOC | Result | Competitor | NOC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bout 1/2 | 12 Aug 20:10 | Piste Final | Zhong Man | 15 – 9 | Nicolas Lopez | |||
| Bout 3/4 | 12 Aug 19:50 | Piste Final | Mihai Covaliu | 15 – 11 | Julien Pillet |