SUN Yujie (CHN) added a team gold to her individual bronze medal as China defeated Korea 39-25 in the final of the women’s epee team event at ExCeL on Saturday.
The last bout was a rematch of the individual bronze medal fight and once again SUN used her reach to devastating effect against an increasingly desperate SHIN A Lam (KOR).
After four bouts, there was nothing separating the two sides at 9-9, but then China gradually moved ahead, increasing their lead bout by bout until SHIN, who missed out on a medal in the individual competition after a timing and scoring controversy, was faced with the impossible task of making up eight hits.
The bronze medal match between Russia and USA ended dramatically as Courtney HURLEY (USA) and Anna SIVKOVA (RUS) fought themselves to a 30-30 standstill at time. In the extra minute, they came together and after some frantic jabbing HURLEY’s light came on to give USA the bronze.
SUN held off a determined assault from SIVKOVA to give China a 20-19 victory in extra time of a slow-scoring semifinal. The Russian had come from four hits down to draw level at 18-18 and then take the lead before SUN equalised as time expired.
In the other semi, Korea continued their stunning fencing form at London 2012 by outpointing USA 45-36. The eighth-seeded Koreans had already staged a major upset by defeating the No.1 seeds Romania 45-38 in the quarterfinals. By the halfway point, Korea were 30-18 ahead and ran out comfortable winners despite Simona GHERMAN (ROU) scoring 12 hits in the last bout.
The turning point in an initially close USA v Italy quarterfinal came in the fifth fight when Maya LAWRENCE (USA) beat Rossella FIAMINGO (ITA) 4-0, and HURLEY followed up by trouncing Bianca DEL CARRETTO (ITA) 8-3. Mara NAVARRIA (ITA) was the only Italian to put up any resistance, scoring an impressive 20 hits in winning all her bouts, but to no avail, as the USA fencers dominated to win 45-35.
Third seeds China were always ahead against Germany in their quarterfinal and hung on in the face of a spirited comeback by Imke DUPLITZER (GER) and Britta HEIDEMANN (GER) – who scored 16 hits in the last two bouts – to win 45-42.
Bout Scores: Gold Medal Match: Korea vs. China
| Bout | KOR | Touches | Score | Touches | CHN |
| 1 | SHIN A L | 3 | 3 – 1 | 1 | LI N |
| 2 | JUNG H | 0 | 3 – 1 | 0 | SUN Y |
| 3 | CHOI I | 4 | 7 – 4 | 3 | XU A |
| 4 | JUNG H | 2 | 9 – 9 | 5 | LI N |
| 5 | SHIN A L | 1 | 10 – 12 | 3 | XU A |
| 6 | CHOI I | 4 | 14 – 18 | 6 | SUN Y |
| 7 | CHOI E | 3 | 17 – 23 | 5 | XU A |
| 8 | CHOI I | 2 | 19 – 27 | 4 | LI N |
| 9 | SHIN A L | 6 | 25 – 39 | 12 | SUN Y |