Épée, Individual, Men

One of the major upsets in the Rio fencing tournaments was the victory of Korean Park Sang-Young, who had dropped from 3 to 21 in the world’s ranking following a knee injury in 2015. One of his victims was No. 2 seeded Enrico Garozzo in the round of the last 16. In the semi-final Park dominated Benjamin Steffen from Switzerland, ranked 13th in the world, 15-9 and advanced to the final. There, his opponent, Hungarian Géza Imre, looked like a sure winner, leading 14-10 against the Korean. But in an exciting comeback, Park managed to score point by point and finally beat Imre 15-14 after a five point rally as the youngest in the field beat the oldest. The 41-year-old Imre became fencing’s oldest individual Olympic medalist since 1952. In Helsinki, fencing legend Aladár Gerevich, also from Hungary, was 42 when he won the silver in the men’s sabre. The number one seeded Frenchman Gauthier Grumier pinned down all opponents easily before the semi-finals. There, he met Imre, who had already beaten him in the final of the 2015 World Championships. The Hungarian held on to a three point lead countering Grumier’s attacks with simultaneous touches to win 15-13. Grumier took the bronze medal beating Steffen 15-11.