Team Japan made history on Friday evening after winning Japan’s first ever Olympic gold medal for fencing. The athletes were competing against the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) in the men’s épée team fencing final after a tight victory against France in the quarter-final and Korea in the semi-final the same day. For this final competition, Koki Kano, Satoru Uyama, Masaru Yamada and Kazuyasu Minobe (reserve) were dueling the ROC’s Sergey Bida, Nikita Glazkov, Pavel Sukhov and Sergey Khodos (reserve).
The final was a promising one, with quick-footed Japan staying just a few points ahead of the ROC throughout the match. The score at the beginning of the ninth and final round was 33-37, leaving the ROC a small window of opportunity to redeem themselves, but they were unable to catch up to Japan.
With this historic 17th gold medal, Japan has won more gold this year than at any other Olympic Games (Japan won 16 gold medals each in the 1964 and 2004 Olympic Games). Who knows how high the total could climb by the end of Week 2?
Keep up-to-date with our guide to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics as well as our Tokyo 2020 Olympics medal tally for Japan.
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