The men's

épée The ( or , ), sometimes spelled epee in English, is the largest and heaviest of the three weapons used in the sport of fencing. The modern derives from the 19th-century , a weapon which itself derives from the French small sword. This contains ...

was one of eight

fencing Fencing is a group of three related combat sports. The three disciplines in modern fencing are the foil, the épée, and the sabre (also ''saber''); winning points are made through the weapon's contact with an opponent. A fourth discipline, s ...

events on the

fencing at the 1964 Summer Olympics At the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, eight events in fencing (sport), fencing were contested. Men competed in both individual and team events for each of the three weapon types (Épée (fencing), épée, Foil (fencing), foil and Sabre (fencing ...

programme. It was the fourteenth appearance of the event. The competition was held from October 18 to 19 1964. 65 fencers from 25 nations competed. Each nation was limited to three fencers. The event was won by

Grigory Kriss Grigory Yakovlevich Kriss ( uk, Григорій Якович Крісс, russian: Григорий Яковлевич Крисс, born 24 December 1940) is a retired Soviet Olympic épée fencer who won four Olympic medals. Early life Kriss wa ...

of the Soviet Union, the nation's first gold medal in the event after a bronze four years earlier. The Soviets also took bronze, with

Guram Kostava Guram Kostava ( ka, გურამ კოსტავა; born 18 June 1937) is a Soviet fencer. Kostava won a bronze in the team épée event at the 1960 Summer Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics ( it, Giochi Olimpici estivi del 1960), off ...

finishing in third place. Between the two was silver medalist

Bill Hoskyns Henry William Furse "Bill" Hoskyns MBE (19 March 1931 – 4 August 2013) was a British fencer who appeared at six Olympic Games., Fencing career Hoskyns, born in London won two silver medals in 1960 and 1964 Olympic Games. No British fence ...

of Great Britain; it was the second consecutive Games with a British silver medalist in the event. Italy's six-Games gold medal streak in the men's individual épée ended with the nation missing the podium entirely;

Gianluigi Saccaro Gianluigi Saccaro (29 December 1938 – 17 February 2021)Giuseppe Delfino Giuseppe Delfino (22 November 1921 – 10 August 1999) was an Italian fencer and Olympic champion in épée competition. Biography He won a gold medal in the épée individual event at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.

of Italy, silver medalist

Allan Jay Allan Louis Neville Jay MBE (born 30 June 1931) is a British former five-time-Olympian foil and épée fencer, and world champion. Early life Jay was born in London, England, and is Jewish. His father died fighting in World War II in 1943. He a ...

of Great Britain, bronze medalist Bruno Habārovs of the Soviet Union, and sixth-place finisher

Yves Dreyfus Yves Dreyfus (17 May 1931 – 16 December 2021) was a French epee fencer who held two medals as part of the French Olympic épée team. Life and career Dreyfus was born in Clermont-Ferrand, France, and was Jewish. He survived the Nazi occupati ...

of France. The field included the previous five World Champions:

of Great Britain (1958), Habārovs (1959),

Jack Guittet Jack Guittet (born 12 January 1930) is a French fencer. He won a bronze medal in the team épée event at the 1964 Summer Olympics The , officially the and commonly known as Tokyo 1964 ( ja, 東京1964), were an international multi-sport e ...

of France (1961), István Kausz of Hungary (1962), and

Roland Losert Roland Losert (born 6 January 1945) is a retired Austrian fencer who won the world title in épée in 1963. He also won junior world titles in épée (1963) and foil (1964 and 1965). Losert competed at the 1964, 1968 and 1972 Summer Olympics in ...

of Austria (1963, the reigning champion). Malaysia and South Korea each made their debut in the event. Belgium and the United States each appeared for the 13th time, tied for most among nations.

Competition format

The competition underwent a significant format change from prior Games. Rather than exclusively pool play, the format now featured a mix of pool play and single-elimination brackets. It was the first time, other than the odd "extra final" round in 1928, that bracket play was used in the event. The format began with two rounds of pool play that narrowed the field to 24 fencers, continued with three rounds of knockout brackets that reduced the competitors to 4, and finished with a final pool featuring those fencers. A ranking bracket was also used for the four quarterfinal losers, placing them 5th, 6th, and 7th (two fencers, with no 7th/8th match). Barrages were used to break ties where necessary for advancement out of pools. Pool round bouts were to 5 touches, with double-losses possible. Knockout round bouts were to 10 touches. * Round 1: 8 pools, 8 or 9 fencers to a pool, top 5 advance (total 40 advancing) * Round 2: 6 pools, 6 or 7 fencers to a pool, top 4 advance (total 24 advancing) * Round of 24: Single-elimination. 16 of the 24 fencers competed, with 8 others having a bye. * Round of 16: Single-elimination. The 8 winners of the round of 24 faced the 8 fencers who had a bye. * Quarterfinals: Single-elimination, with losers to a consolation bracket. The winners advanced to the final pool. * 5th–8th bracket: Quarterfinal losers competed in two 5th–8th semifinals, with the winners playing a 5th/6th final. * Final pool: The four quarterfinal winners competed in a round-robin final pool.

Schedule

All times are

Japan Standard Time , or , is the standard time zone in Japan, 9 hours ahead of UTC ( UTC+09:00). Japan does not observe daylight saving time, though its introduction has been debated on several occasions. During World War II, the time zone was often referred to a ...

(

UTC+9 UTC+09:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +09:00. During the Japanese occupations of British Borneo, Burma, Hong Kong, Dutch East Indies, Malaya, Philippines, Singapore, and French Indochina, it was used as a common time with ...

)

Results

Round 1

Round 1 pool A

Round 1 pool B

; Barrage

Round 1 pool C

; Barrage

Round 1 pool D

Round 1 pool E

Round 1 pool F

; Barrage

Round 1 pool G

Round 1 pool H

Round 2

Round 2 pool A

Round 2 pool B

; Barrage

Round 2 pool C

Round 2 pool D

Round 2 pool E

Round 2 pool F

; Barrage

Knockout rounds

The winner of each group advanced to the final pool, while the runner-up moved into a 5th-place semifinal.

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Fifth place semifinal

Final

; Gold medal barrage ; Bronze medal barrage

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fencing at the 1964 Summer Olympics - Men's epee Fencing at the 1964 Summer Olympics Men's events at the 1964 Summer Olympics