ISTANBUL, Türkiye, May 19-21, 2023 – France’s Alexandre Bardenet won the individual men’s epee gold medal at the Istanbul Men’s Epee World Cup and Kazakhstan won the team gold. The event took place at the “Başakşehir Gençlik ve Spor İlçe Müdürlüğü Tesisleri”, with 348 individual fencers and 45 teams participating in the competition.
Bardenet faced Hungary’s Mate Tamas Koch in the final bout of men’s individual epee, winning with a 13-12 score. In the semifinal round, Koch won against Italy’s Davide Di Veroli, 15-8, while Bardenet defeated the Netherlands’ Tristan Tulen, 15-9. Of note, Italy’s Federico Vismara beat France’s world and Olympic champion Romain Cannone in the table of 16, 15-10, before being eliminated by Koch in the quarterfinals, 15-14.
Kazakhstan won against the Netherlands in the final match of men’s team epee, 34-20. In the semifinal round, the Netherlands defeated Korea, 45-27, while Kazakhstan beat Spain, 45-32. The bronze medal went to Korea over Spain, 39-38.
Final rankings in men’s individual epee included Alexandre Bardenet (FRA, gold), Mate Tamas Koch (HUN, silver), Davide Di Veroli (ITA, bronze), Tristan Tulen (NED, bronze), Federico Vismara (ITA), Zijie Wang (CHN), Paul Allegre (FRA) and Enrico Garozzo (ITA).
Final rankings in men’s team epee included Kazakhstan (gold), the Netherlands (silver), Korea (bronze), Spain, Hungary, Japan, France and Argentina.
Complete and official results for the event may be found here on the FIE web site. For more exciting world fencing news and features, check out the YouTube FIE Fencing Channel.