Fencing at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Women's team sabre

Women's team sabre at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad
Olympic fencing
Venue	Makuhari Messe
Date	31 July 2021
Competitors	35 from 9 nations
Medalists
Olga Nikitina Sofia Pozdniakova Sofya Velikaya   ROC Sara Balzer Cécilia Berder Manon Brunet Charlotte Lembach   France Choi Soo-yeon Kim Ji-yeon Seo Ji-yeon Yoon Ji-su   South Korea
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The women's team sabre event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place on 31 July 2021 at the Makuhari Messe. ^[1] 27 fencers (9 teams of 3) from 9 nations are expected to compete. ^[2]

Background

This will be the 3rd appearance of the event. It was introduced in 2008, at which point the team events began to be rotated off the schedule, with only two of the three weapons for each of the men's and women's categories. The women's team sabre rotated off in 2012 and back on in 2016. The 2020 Games ended the rotation system, with all weapons having team events.

The reigning Olympic champion is Russia (Yekaterina Dyachenko, Yuliya Gavrilova, Yana Egorian, and Sofya Velikaya). Russia is also the reigning World Champion (Egorian, Olga Nikitina, Sofia Pozdniakova, and Velikaya). A preview from Olympics.com identified Russia as a recently powerful contender, joining historically strong nations Italy, France, and Hungary. ^[3]

Qualification

Main article: Fencing at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Qualification

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

There are 8 dedicated quota spots for women's team sabre. They are allocated as through the world team ranking list of 5 April 2021. The top 4 spots, regardless of geographic zone, qualify (ROC, Italy, France, and South Korea). 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 China (Asia/Oceania), the United States (Americas), Tunisia (Africa), and Hungary (Europe). ^[2]

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

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 sabre rules regarding target area, striking, and priority are used. ^{[5] [6]}

Schedule

The competition is held over a single day, Saturday, 31 July. The first session runs from 10 a.m. to approximately 3:20 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
Saturday, 31 July 2021	10:00         18:30	Round of 16 Quarterfinals Semifinals Classification 7/8 Classification 5/6 Bronze medal match Gold medal match

Results

	Round of 16				Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
					ROC	45
					Japan	34
	Tunisia	29
	Japan	45
									ROC	45
									South Korea	26
					Hungary	40
					South Korea	45
													ROC	45
													France	41
					France	45
					United States	30
									France	45
									Italy	39			Bronze medal bout
					China	41							South Korea	45
					Italy	45							Italy	42

5–8th place classification

	5–8th place semifinals				Fifth place bout
	Japan	45
	Hungary	42
					Japan	45
					United States	43
	United States	45
	China	35
					Seventh place bout
					Hungary	30
					China	45

Final classification

Rank	Team	Athlete
	ROC	Olga Nikitina Sofia Pozdniakova Sofya Velikaya
	France	Sara Balzer Cécilia Berder Manon Brunet Charlotte Lembach
	South Korea	Choi Soo-yeon Kim Ji-yeon Seo Ji-yeon Yoon Ji-su
4	Italy	Michela Battiston Martina Criscio Rossella Gregorio Irene Vecchi
5	Japan	Chika Aoki Misaki Emura Shihomi Fukushima Noriko Tamura
6	United States	Francesca Russo Anne-Elizabeth Stone Dagmara Wozniak Mariel Zagunis
7	China	Guo Yiqi Qian Jiarui Shao Yaqi Yang Hengyu
8	Hungary	Sugár Katinka Battai Renáta Katona Anna Márton Liza Pusztai
9	Tunisia	Nadia Ben Azizi Amira Ben Chaabane Yasmine Daghfous Olfa Hezami

References

1. "Fencing Competition Schedule". Tokyo 2020. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
2. "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.

External links

• Draw Archived 31 July 2021 at the Wayback Machine