Men's Individual Sabre

Three Americans were competing in the men's sabre competition:  Daryl Homer, Timothy Morehouse, and James Williams. All three men had byes in the round of 64. Tim defeated Veniamin Reshetnikov of Russia 15-6, which wasn't expected at all. Daryl Homer was expected to win and did, 15-11. James Williams was defeated by Nikolay Kovalev, which was also expected.

Timothy Morehouse and Daryl Homer then won narrowly in the Round of 16. Tim defeated Dmitri Lapkes 15-13. Daryl defeated the Russian Yakimenko, one of the top two in the world, 15 points to 14. Both Tim and Daryl, though, lost in the quarters. Tim lost to Italy's Diego Occhiuzzi, 9-15. Daryl was defeated 15-13 by Rares Dumitrescu of Romania. Also in the quarterfinals, Nikolay Kovalev of Russia defeated the top seed, Nicolas Limbach of Germany, 15-12.

The two semifinals were Diego Occhiuzzi versus Rares Dumitrescu and Aron Szilagyi and Nikolay Kovalev. I missed the Szilagyi-Kovalev bout, but Szilagyi won, 15-7.

After one period, the Dumitrescu-Occhiuzzi score was 5-8. At the beginning of the Dumitrescu-Occhiuzzi second period, in seven seconds of fencing time, went from 5-8 to 7-11.
Once it was 14-9, both were just going in, so quickly, not doing much complicated -- one trying to finish and one trying to save. Dumitrescu got a point the third time they did that. On the next touch, Occhiuzzi was sure he'd won, it seemed, but when it was ruled simultaneous he asked for a new sabre. Dumitrescu clearly got the next point. Occhiuzzi won on the next point, 15-11.

In the bronze medal match, Kovalev was up 4-0, but then Dumitrescu came back and scored 3 points in a row. After twenty seconds of fencing time, it was 6-3, Kovalev.  At period, Kovalev led 8-3. (Note that they weren't even thirty seconds of fencing time in when they went to the next period.)
Kovalev opened the second period by scoring two points in one second. Dumitrescu then scored three points in the next five seconds. Nine seconds into the second period, the score was 11-8, Kovalev.
Kovalev switched sabres when the score was 14-9. Dumitrescu got the next point. Kovalev won on a counter parry riposte, 15-10, thus earning the bronze medal.

The final was fifth seeded Aron Szilagyi of Hungary versus fourteenth seeded Occhiuzzi of Italy. Not-really-related note: In the few bouts of sabre I watched, I was at least three instances of the equivalent of a false start -- someone going before "allez." Szilagyi was rolling at the beginning. First four points were all his, in five seconds of fencing time. For his fifth point, he really pulled Occhiuzzi, and then suddenly attacked, changing direction with little warning. It was very well done.
Twelve seconds into the period, Szilagyi was up 7-0. It was going to take a lot for Occhiuzzi to even make this close. He did get his first point then, so the score was 1-7. Then Szilagyi committed a "false start." Szilagyi then got a point, so the score was 8-1, and that was the end of the first period.
Occhiuzzi got the first two points of the second period. It looked like Szilagyi tried to pull Occhiuzzi again, but Occhiuzzi scored this time. 3-8. Occhiuzzi started to come back a bit. 5-9. After Szilagyi went up 10-5 again, Occhiuzzi pushed and got a point. 6-10. After a few more hits, Szilagyi was up 14-7. Occhiuzzi pushed for the next point and the score was 8-14, but it looked like he hurt his foot or lower leg. Once he got up and walked back to his end of the piste, he looked okay. Far onto his end of the piste, Szilagyi attacked, and his attack landed. Aron Szilagyi of Hungary is the men's sabre Olympic champion.

It's worth noting that seeds don't align perfectly with world rankings. Seeds are drawn, but a higher ranked fencer is more likely to have a better seed.  Still, these medalists were not expected -- Nicolas Limbach of Germany, Alexey Yakimenko of Russia, or Gu Bongil of South Korea were expected.

The Federation Internationale d'Escrime (FIE) rankings have already been updated. Nicolas Limbach is first and Alexey Yakimenko is second (also top two pre-Olympics), but Aron Szilagyi is now third. Gu Bongil is fourth, Dumitrescu is fifth, Kovalev is sixth, and Occhiuzzi is seventh. Daryl Homer has moved up to 12th.