The men's

épée The (, ; ), also rendered as epee in English, is the largest and heaviest of the three weapons used in the sport of fencing. The modern derives from the 19th-century , a weapon which itself derives from the French small sword. This contains a ...

competition in

fencing Fencing is a combat sport that features sword fighting. It consists of three primary disciplines: Foil (fencing), foil, épée, and Sabre (fencing), sabre (also spelled ''saber''), each with its own blade and set of rules. Most competitive fe ...

at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

was held on 1 August at the ExCeL London Exhibition Centre. There were 30 competitors from 24 nations.

Rubén Limardo Rubén Dario Limardo Gascón (born 3 August 1985) is a Venezuelan left-handed épée fencer, five-time team Pan American champion, four-time individual Pan American champion, three-time Olympian, and 2012 individual Olympic champion. Limardo ...

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

won the gold medal – the country's only medal of the 2012 Games as well as the country's first medal in men's individual épée.

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

's Bartosz Piasecki won silver (that nation's first medal in the event, as well) and

Jung Jin-Sun Jung Jin-Sun (; or ; born 24 January 1984) is a South Korean right-handed épée fencer, four-time team Asian champion, four-time individual Asian champion, three-time Olympian, and 2012 individual Olympic bronze medalist. Career Jung took ...

from

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

took bronze.

Background

This was the 26th appearance of the event, which was not held at the first Games in 1896 (with only foil and sabre events held) but has been held at every Summer Olympics since 1900. Three of the eight quarterfinalists from 2008 returned: fifth-place finisher

of South Korea, sixth-place finisher

Radosław Zawrotniak Radosław Aleksander Zawrotniak (born 2 September 1981 in Kraków, Małopolskie) is a Polish fencer who won a silver medal in Men's Team Épée (Fencing) at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, together with Tomasz Motyka, Adam Wiercioch, and ...

of Poland, and eighth-place finisher

Bas Verwijlen Bas Verwijlen (born 1 October 1983) is a Dutch right-handed épée fencer and four-time Olympian.Biografi ...

of the Netherlands.

Paolo Pizzo Paolo Pizzo (born 4 April 1983) is an Italian right-handed épée fencer, two-time individual world champion, two-time Olympian, and 2016 team Olympic silver medalist. Biography In 1996, when Paolo Pizzo was 13, he was diagnosed with head canc ...

of Italy was the reigning (2011) World Champion, with 2010 champion

Nikolai Novosjolov Nikolai Novosjolov (born 9 June 1980) is an Estonian right-handed épée fencer, two-time individual world champion, and four-time Olympian. Novosjolov competed in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the 2012 Lond ...

of Estonia also competing in London. Senegal and Uzbekistan each made their debut in the event. France and the United States each appeared for the 24th time, tied for most among nations.

Qualification

Nations were limited to three fencers each from 1928 to 2004. However, the 2008 Games introduced a rotation of men's team fencing events with one weapon left off each Games; the individual event without a corresponding team event had the number of fencers per nation reduced to two. The men's rotation started with foil (2008) and épée (2012), with sabre scheduled to skip its team event in 2016. Thus, the maximum for individual épée in 2012 was two per nation. There were 30 dedicated quota spots for men's épée. The first 12 spots went to the top fencers by world ranking. Next, 8 more men were selected from the world rankings based on continents: 2 each from Europe, the Americas, Asia/Oceania, and Africa. Finally, 10 spots were allocated by continental qualifying events: 4 from Europe, 2 from the Americas, 3 from Asia/Oceania, and 1 from Africa. Additionally, there were 8 host/invitational spots that could be spread throughout the various fencing events. Great Britain chose not to use any of its places in the men's épée.

Competition format

The

competition, following the format introduced in 1996, consisted of a five-round single-elimination bracket with a bronze medal match between the two semifinal losers. Fencing was done to 15 touches or to the completion of three three-minute rounds if neither fencer reached 15 touches by then. At the end of time, the higher-scoring fencer was the winner; a tie resulted in an additional one-minute sudden-death time period. This sudden-death period was further modified by the selection of a draw-winner beforehand; if neither fencer scored a touch during the minute, the predetermined draw-winner won the bout.

Schedule

All times are

British Summer Time During British Summer Time (BST), civil time in the United Kingdom is advanced one hour forward of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), in effect changing the time zone from UTC+00:00 to UTC+01:00, so that mornings have one hour less daylight, and eve ...

(UTC+1)

Results

Top half

Bottom half

Finals

Results summary

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fencing at the 2012 Summer Olympics - Men's epee Men's epee Men's events at the 2012 Summer Olympics