Only 1 of the top 4 seeds in the individual men’s epee event survived to the semi-finals and a chance at a medal this evening. 2 of the top 3 seeds were eliminated in the round of 16 and only Matteo Tagliariol of Italy kept seed to advance to the final four.
Epee is viewed as one of those weapons where any given fencer can win the tournament. It is also a sport of match ups, where facing the right fencer for your style can help decide the match.
The remaining fencers in the top 4 are 15th seed Gabor Boczko (HUN), #16 Jose Louis Abejo (ESP), and 27th seed Fabrice Jeannet. Reigning world champion Krisztian Kulcsar (HUN) lost in his opening round match, joining US fencer Seth Kelsey and Ukrainian Maksym Khvorost in the upsets at the top-32.
In the top-16, 5 of the 8 bouts resulted in upsets and only 3 of the original top 8 seeds advanced into the quarterfinals.
Fabrice Jeannet started his quest for a medal with a bout against Khirgiz fencer Katchurin. Early in their match Katchurin closed distance and made late hits, enough to anger Jeannet. After one such hit, Jeannet put on an injury act that would make his country’s soccer clubs proud.
The opening match continued to be fiercely contested and was characterized by the Frenchman as "street combat". As he won, Jeannet made a point of screaming into his opponent’s face several times.
Jeannet went on to defeat Seth Kelsey 15-11, Canada’s Igor Tikhomirov 15-7 and then #3 seed Jin Sun (KOR) 15-11. As the #27 seed, he is the lowest seed remaining.
Fabrice’s brother, Jerome, did not fare as well. The top seeded fencer lost in the round of 16 to Spanish epeeist Jose Luis Abajo 15-9. Abajo went on to defeat Diego Confalonieri (ITA) 14-13 to make the semi finals.
Abajo will face off against #4 seed and first time Olympian Tagliariol. The Italian won his matches 15-10 (vs. Torkildsen of Norway), 15-11 against Frenchman Robeiri and 15-11 against Dutch fencers Bas Verwijlen.
Advancing to face off against Jeannet is Hungarian Gabor Boczko who defeated Poland’s Radoslaw Zawrotniak 15-8 in the quarterfinals, closing out their match with a series of quick counter-6 blade takes.