Fencing at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Men's team foil

The men's team foil event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place on 1 August 2021 at the Makuhari Messe.[1] 27 fencers (9 teams of 3) from 9 nations are expected to compete.[2]

Men's team foil
at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad
Olympic fencing
VenueMakuhari Messe
Date1 August 2021
Competitors35 from 9 nations
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Erwann Le Péchoux
Enzo Lefort
Julien Mertine
Maxime Pauty
 France
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Anton Borodachev
Kirill Borodachev
Vladislav Mylnikov
Timur Safin
 ROC
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Race Imboden
Nick Itkin
Alexander Massialas
Gerek Meinhardt
 United States
← 2016
2024 →

Background

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This will be the 24th appearance of the event. It was first held in 1904, but omitted in 1908 (when no foil medal events were held) and 1912 (when it was the only one of the six possible men's events not included). The men's team foil returned in 1920 and has been held at every Summer Olympics since 1920 except 2008 (during the time when team events were rotated off the schedule, with only two of the three weapons for each of the men's and women's categories).

The reigning Olympic champion is Russia (Aleksey Cheremisinov, Artur Akhmatkhuzin, and Timur Safin). The reigning World Champion is the United States (Miles Chamley-Watson, Race Imboden, Alexander Massialas, and Gerek Meinhardt). A preview from Olympics.com identified 2016 individual gold medalist Daniele Garozzo as the leader of a strong Italian team that will compete with the United States (especially 2016 silver medalist Massialas) and France (especially 2019 individual World Champion Enzo Lefort) for the team and individual medals in foil.[3]

Qualification

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A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter a team of 3 fencers in the men's team foil. These fencers also automatically qualified for the individual event.[2]

There are 8 dedicated quota spots for men's team foil. They are allocated as through the world team ranking list of 5 April 2021. The top 4 spots, regardless of geographic zone, qualify (United States, France, Italy, and ROC). The next four spots are allocated to separate geographic zones, as long as an NOC from that zone is in the top 16. These places went to Hong Kong (Asia/Oceania), Canada (Americas), Egypt (Africa), and Germany (Europe).[2]

Additionally, there are 8 host/invitational spots that can be spread throughout the various fencing events.[2] Japan qualified one men's foil fencer through normal individual qualification and used two host quota places to complete a men's foil team.

The COVID-19 pandemic delayed many of the events for qualifying for fencing, moving the close of the rankings period back to April 5, 2021 rather than the original April 4, 2020.[2][4]

Competition format

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The 2020 tournament is a single-elimination tournament, with classification matches for all places. Each match features the three fencers on each team competing in a round-robin, with 9 three-minute bouts to 5 points; the winning team is the one that reaches 45 total points first or is leading after the end of the nine bouts. Standard foil rules regarding target area, striking, and priority are used.[5][6]

Schedule

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The competition is held over a single day, Sunday, 1 August. The first session runs from 9 a.m. to approximately 4 p.m. (when all matches except the bronze and gold medal finals are expected to conclude), after which there is a break until 6:30 p.m. before the medal bouts are held.[1]

All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)

Date Time Round
Sunday, 1 August 2021 9:00
 
 
 
 
18:30
 
Round of 16
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Classification 7/8
Classification 5/6
Bronze medal match
Gold medal match

Results

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Round of 16Quarter-finalsSemi-finalsFinal
              
  United States45
  Germany36
  Canada31
  Germany45
  United States41
  ROC45
  Hong Kong39
  ROC45
  ROC28
  France45
  Italy43
  Japan45
  Japan42
  France45 Bronze medal bout
  Egypt34  United States45
  France45   Japan31

5–8th place classification

 
5–8th place semifinalsFifth place bout
 
      
 
 
 
 
  Germany45
 
 
 
  Hong Kong38
 
  Germany
 
 
 
  ItalyWD
 
  Italy45
 
 
  Egypt30
 
Seventh place bout
 
 
 
 
 
  Hong Kong45
 
 
  Egypt21

Final classification

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Rank Team Athlete
    France Erwann Le Péchoux
Enzo Lefort
Julien Mertine
Maxime Pauty
    ROC Anton Borodachev
Kirill Borodachev
Vladislav Mylnikov
Timur Safin
    United States Race Imboden
Nick Itkin
Alexander Massialas
Gerek Meinhardt
4   Japan Kyosuke Matsuyama
Yudai Nagano
Toshiya Saito
Takahiro Shikine
5   Italy Giorgio Avola
Andrea Cassarà
Alessio Foconi
Daniele Garozzo
6   Germany Peter Joppich
Benjamin Kleibrink
Luis Klein
André Sanità
7   Hong Kong Cheung Ka-long
Cheung Siu Lun
Ryan Choi
Lawrence Ng
8   Egypt Alaaeldin Abouelkassem
Mohamed Hamza
Mohamed Hassan
Youssef Sanaa
9   Canada Blake Broszus
Alex Cai
Maximilien Van Haaster

References

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  1. ^ a b "Fencing Competition Schedule". Tokyo 2020. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Qualification System – Games of the XXXII Olympiad – Fencing" (PDF). Fédération Internationale d'Escrime. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 May 2018. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
  3. ^ "Everything you need to know about Olympic fencing at Tokyo 2020". Tokyo 2020. 20 March 2021. Archived from the original on 3 July 2021. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  4. ^ Academy of Fencing Masters
  5. ^ NBC
  6. ^ "Fencing". Archived from the original on 3 July 2021. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
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