Épée, Individual, Women

The women’s épée was one of the fencing events in Rio without any clear favorite, as no athlete had won more than one World Cup or Grand Prix event throughout the season. None of the top three seeded fencers; Sarra Besbes from Tunisia, Xu Anqi from PRC and Tatyana Logunova from Russia, reached the semi-finals. Besbes, eight times gold medalist at the African Championships, and bronze medalist at the 2015 World Championships, did at least advance to the quarter-finals, but Xu and épée legend Logunova both lost their first bouts. London 2012 gold medalist Yana Shemiakina from Ukraine also failed to make the quarter-final.

The four semi-finalists comprised Italy’s Rossella Fiamingo, Lauren Rembi from France, Sun Yiwen from PR China and Emese Szász from Hungary. The 33-year-old from Budapest had never won a title at the Olympics, World or European Championships before. She enjoyed her most successful seasons in 2010 and 2011 when she won the World Cup series in both years. In the semi-final in Rio Szász defeated Rembi with a score of 10–6. In the second semi-final Fiamingo stopped Sun Yiwen’s advance with a narrow 12–11 victory. The gold medal bout was also close. The Italian started as the dominant fencer, but couldn’t shake off Szász, who always stayed in touch. The Hungarian came from behind, trailing 12–11 at the start of the final three minutes. Subsequently, she scored four points against only one by Fiamingo to secure her victory by 15–13. China’s Sun defeated Rembi to win the bronze medal by another narrow 15–13 scoreline.