The Olympic fencing events continued into Day 7 at the Grand Palais with the men’s team epee competition. Hungary unseated defending Olympic champion Japan after winning 26-25 in a tight gold medal match. Czechia won its first fencing team medal in the bronze medal match with an explosive performance by Jakub Jurka.
After men's epee favorites Gergely Siklosi and Mate Koch were eliminated in major upsets in the individual event, Hungary tasted sweet redemption in the gold medal match against Japan.
The two countries played an extremely close match with neither giving up many touches. The Hungarians were able to slightly pull ahead by using a wide array of touches including hand, wrist, and toe taps that surprised their opponents. They earned a comfortable three-point lead that they held through the end of the sixth bout.
In the seventh bout, Japan bounced back by tying the match 15-15, but the relief was short lived. Koch responded with a touch shortly after. Heading into the final bout, Hungary led the match 20-18.
Koki Kano, Japan's anchor and Olympic gold medalist in men's individual epee, tied the match 21-21 by quickly scoring three points against Siklosi. Still, Hungary soon took the lead after Siklosi parried and riposted one of Kano's attacks. In the last seven seconds, Kano scored the tying point and the match went into a sudden-death tiebreaker round. Siklosi skillfully scored the final touch to win gold at last.
In the preceding bronze medal match, Czechia took on France. The host country was the favorite to win gold, especially after France’s Yannick Borel won silver in the Olympic individual men's epee event. Czechia was not expected to be a medal contender leading into the Games until they won in an upset over Italy in the quarterfinal round.
Czechia got a strong start to the match, with Jurka, Martin Rubes and Jiri Beran all scoring a lead over France. The tide changed in the fourth bout when Paul Allegre took the lead by scoring five points against Rubes. The French were able to maintain the lead as they went into the final bout 35-31.
Jurka opened the bout by cornering France's Yannick Borel on the edge of the piste and scoring touches with parries and ripostes to Borel's attacks. He was successful in scoring six points and leveling the match 37-37. Though the crowd cheered for Borel, Jurka was able to score another three points for Hungary to lead the match 40-37 before Borel tried switching up the match’s momentum by changing his weapon. It didn't work.
Borel only scored two of the three touches France needed to tie the match. In a last ditch attempt with less than a second left in the match, Borel charged at Jurka but the clock timed out. Czechia won the bronze medal on its opponent’s home territory. After losing several times in a row to France earlier in the season, the Czechs were ecstatic to finally win.
"I'm still in a dream. For me and for our team, it means a lot. Because for me, it is the last day. It was the last match. I'm finishing my professional career today," Jiri Beran of Czechia said.
Men's team epee medalists
🥇Hungary (Gergely Siklosi, Mate Koch, Tibor Andrasfi, David Nagy)
🥈Japan (Koki Kano, Masaru Yamada, Kazuyasu Minobe, Akira Komata)
🥉Czechia (Jakub Jurka, Martin Rubes, Jiri Beran, Michal Cupr)