Épée, Individual, Women

Sun Yiwen of China was the defending gold medalist and was seeded #3, ranking behind Hong Kong’s Man Wai “Vivian” Kong (1) and France’s Marie-Florence Candassamy (2).

Sun was upset early, losing her first match to the #30 seed from Japan, Miho Yoshimura. Candassamy also faltered, losing her second match to Sun’s teammate, Yu Sihan, who was seeded 18th.

Kong had no such trouble, moving to the final easily, where she faced France’s Auriane Mallo-Breton, who had been the silver medalist earlier in the year at the European Championships. Mallo-Breton took a 4-0 lead in the first period, but Kong chiseled away at it and eventually prevailed, 13-12, to take the gold medal.

Kong’s gold was only the second fencing medal ever for Hong Kong, China, after Edgar Cheung’s gold in the 2020 men’s individual foil, although Cheung would repeat as gold medalist two days later in Paris.

The bronze medal match between Hungary’s Eszter Muhari and Estonia’s Nelli Differt went to overtime, with Muhari taking the medal, 15-14.