Women's Individual Epee

It's worth noting two things to begin. First, epee is a very deliberate weapon. Of the three weapons, it is the one that most embodies the idea of "physical chess." There's a rule in place that says that after a certain amount of time -- about a minute -- in a period has elapsed with nothing happening (no touches, in the case of epee), then the time will automatically reset to the beginning of the next period, with no break. Second, there is no right of way in epee. This means that if both fencers' lights go off in epee, both fencers are awarded a point. The only exception is in extra time. The point of extra time is to break a tie, so a double touch in extra time is just called simultaneous, nothing done.

Three American women competed in epee. Susie Scanlan lost 13-15 in the round of 64. Maya Lawrence and Courtney Hurley had round of 64 byes, so their first bouts were in the round of 32.

I watched Courtney Hurley's bout against Laura Flessel-Colovic of France, who was their flag bearer. Courtney Hurley held her epee at a higher angle than most people. Laura feinted a lot of attacks. First touch was simultaneous. Second touch both missed first intention, Courtney got second. Third touch was simultaneous. Laura is left-handed. Courtney didn't stay very low -- Laura's knees were much more bent. Next touch was simultaneous, then Courtney attacked and landed on the upper arm or shoulder. 5-3. Laura landed a hit -- looked like it was going to the arm then went lower. Simultaneous on the next one (Laura's attack, Courtney's counter). Next point was Courtney's attack, Laura's counter. 6-7 Courtney ahead. Laura tied it with five seconds left in the period with a touch to the upper inner quadrant of Courtney's torso.
Courtney was bouncy. Laura stayed lower and more turned in, so even when she bounced, it didn't look as bouncy. Laura got the first touch of the period. Her ninth touch came on a fleche. Courtney leaned and ducked a little, and Laura fleched and hit Courtney on the back. Next was simultaneous. Laura led 10-8. It was pretty fast moving, for epee. Attack by Laura was no, and then an attack by Courtney landed. Next touch went to Laura, near the wrist. Then Laura fleched, but the fleche didn't land, and Courtney got the touch. Simultaneous. 11-12, Laura ahead. Laura, on one of the attacks that looks like it'll just be a feint, hit the inner side of Courtney's torso. Courtney got the next touch. 12-13, Laura ahead. Laura lunged in and got a touch to Courtney's leg (at least second intention, maybe third,but all to the leg). And Laura won on another low touch, 15-12.


I switched over to watch the end of the Maya Lawrence bout with Italy's Maria Navarria. Maya was ahead 13-11, and then Maria missed a leg touch on Maya, and Maya got an upper leg touch on Maria. Maria pushed Maya pretty far back (though not as far as I saw the foilists go often). Double touch, and Maya Lawrence of the US advanced to the round of 16 after a 15-12 win.

I started watching Lawrence's round of 16 bout against Italy's Rossella Fiamingo about a minute into the second period. Fiamingo was ahead 7-4. She's left-handed. Double touch. Both fencers moved back and forth a lot, but they didn't really bounce. Fiamingo stayed lower than did Maya. Maya got the next touch. Fiamingo also kept her epee at a higher angle. Fiamingo got a touch on a simple attack right under Maya's bib. 9-6. She got the next touch, too, also just lunging in. Fiamingo's stance reminded me of Laura's earlier. Next was a simultaneous -- Rosella's on Maya's leg. 11-7. They flowed so much. Both attacked, but only Fiamingo got the point. 12-7 to end the period.

Maya fleched, but Fiamingo hit her first. 13-7. Fiamingo then attacked and got a touch. Maya was then trying to lunge out of range. Maya attacked, and Fiamingo's counter attack landed, and Fiamingo won, 15-7.

Britta Heideman won 15-14 to Li Na of China, which wasn't expected -- Li Na is number 2 in the world. Laura Flessel-Colovic lost to Romania's Simona Gherman, who is fourth in the world. Ana Maria Branza of Roumania, world number 6, lost to Yana Shemyakina of Ukraine, the 11th ranked fencer in the world. Sun Yujie and Anca Maroiu, world 1 and 3, are through to the quarters, as are Shin A Lam (#12) and the surprise of the competition so far, #33 Sarra Besbes of Tunisia.

So, in the quarters, I watched Fiamingo and Sun Yujie of China. A minute into the bout, it was 1-1. Sun is a lot taller than Fiamingo. On a countertime, Sun got a second touch, and then Fiamingo got another touch. Sun got a touch on Rosella on her shoulder. Both fencers are lefties. Rosella got a touch on a fleche. 3-3. Rosella got a touch on Sun's upper arm and led for the first time in the bout. Both were bouncing, Sun more, but they weren't jumping, it was just up and down in the knees. Simultaneous. 5-4 at break. After break, Fiamingo fleched, but both got points. Sun got a touch tying the score at 6. Fiamingo feinted forward often. Fiamingo's attack and Sun's counter attack both landed, 7-7. Fiamingo also tended to feint down. They were fencing really close to the edge of the strip. Rosella's counter attack landed, 8-7. Rosella's third intention, to the lower leg or foot, landed, 9-7 Rosella. Sun got the next two points and tied the score at 9. That was the score at break. After break, Sun got a touch to Fiamingo's leg and went up 10-9. Fiamingo fleched and tied the score. On a countertime, it looked like, Fiamingo scored. Sun got an upper leg touch to tie again. Fiamingo scored again, after one or two remises. Simultaneous, Fiamingo's attack and Sun's counter. 13-12 Fiamingo. Sun got the next touch, tying the match. Simultaneous. And they go to extra time. Simultaneous twice, and Fiamingo changed epees. Another simultaneous, with seven seconds left in extra time. They were farther to Sun's side than they had been at any other point. And Sun got the touch with four seconds left in extra time to win 15-14.

Anca Maroiu lost to Shin A Lam, Britta Heidemann defeated Sarra Besbes, and Yana Shemyakina defeated Simona Gherman. Despite having three of the six highest ranked fencers in the world, there will not be a Romanian on the medal podium.

Sun v. Shemyakina in the first semifinal. Sun got the first touch. Mostly moving in place, back and forth. Shemyakina did a few feints. Simultaneous. And another simultaneous, both attacking at the same time. Break at 3-2. Shemyakina then got a touch on sun's upper arm. Sun got a touch on Shemyakina's upper arm as Shemyakina tried to get a toe touch. Sun got another touch a counter attack to Shemyakina's shoulder, to go up 5-3. Shemyakina displaced down and got a touch on the torso near Sun's left shoulder. Next was a simultaneous, and Sun was up 6-5, and that was the score at break. Sun was hitting a lot more on people's torsos than I expect of an epeeist, but it works really well for her. Shemyakina displaced down again and hit that same spot near Sun's shoulder. Sun really needed to do a better job of protecting her inner upper quadrant. Shemyakina got a touch to go up for the first time in the bout. As Sun went for a toe touch, Shemyakina hit Sun's elbow. 8-6, Shemyakina. Shemyakina tried to displace down again, and Sun hit her upper arm. 7-8. Under a minute left in the third period. Shemyakina attacked and hit Sun's elbow. Sun started pushing Shemyakina down the strip, but the next touch was simultaneous. 10-8. Sun was definitely trying to be more aggressive, but another simultaneous made it 11-9, and Sun was running out of time. Sun fleched to make the score 10-11 with 18 seconds remaining. Sun attacked out of distance, and when her in distance attack hit, so did Shemyakina's counter. With three seconds left, another simultaneous. 12-13. Shemyakina retreated as quickly as possible. Another simultaneous with one second remaining. Shemyakina retreated, and as long as Sun's legs are, she couldn't get anywhere near Shemyakina in one second. Shemyakina won 14-13 over the world number 1.

Britta Heideman v. Shin A Lam. Heidemann scored the first point of the match to Shin's fingers. Super impressive. About a minute and a half into the first period, the two fencers got a little more agressive -- beating blades, coming in more, and even trying to displace down at the same time. Heidemann got the second touch to go up 2-0. Shin got her first point on a touch to Heidemann's outer side. 1-2 was the score at break. The two tried to attack but were always out of distance for more than a minute...which means without a break, the third period started. After 33 seconds of the 3rd period, Shin got a touch on a counter attack to tie the score. Heidemann has had a couple of misses trying to displace down, but she's really quick about getting up and out of the way. The next touch was simultaneous, Heidemann's attack and Shin's counter. The same thing again put the score at 4-4. So many simultaneous... 5-5.  With 30 seconds left, Heidemann asked for a halt and took a moment to get her hair out of her face. Then she pushed Shin over to her side of the piste... and time in the third period ran out.

They were more aggressive in extra time, but they weren't really attacking more, just beating the blade and getting closer. Simultaneous, so nothing done. And again. 15 seconds left in extra time. Two more double touches. Now 5 seconds left. Heidemann fleched, but Shin's counter attack landed as well. And yet again. 1 second left in extra time. And the same thing. Still one second. Again, and still 1 second. Shin was unhappy I think because either she thought time had run out, and her coach was pretty unhappy as well. Shin didn't look happy earlier, either -- I think she thought Heidemann was closer after a halt than she should have been. The referee did keep telling them "distance," which means to separate. Once, the referee even used Heidemann’s first name: “Britta, distance.”

Then Heidemann's fleche finally worked and they thought she won, but the Korean coach was definitely arguing the time, convinced that Heidemann’s touch landed after time had expired. "It's not possible. No. No." "How many already one second. Not possible. Four times, one second." "Watch the video, watch the video, please." (And then later he switched to French) Shin was in tears, and Heidemann just looked stressed. Lots of referees and timekeepers (not just the ones for this bout) and FIE (International Fencing Federation) officials gathered around two screens to watch the touch and the clock over and over.

It took ages. Ages and ages. Heidemann was declared the winner, and it was just awful, in a way. Shin didn't move. Heidemann went over, and basically lifted Shin's hand, shook it, and put it back by Shin's side. Shin just stood there, sort of frozen. Oh my goodness. Finally, she moved. Her coach was basically escorted away. The crowd was asked not to boo, but I've truly never seen anything quite so awful in a fencing bout. She sat on the strip with her head in her hands -- if she left the piste, she would be accepting the decision, and the Korean official was filing a written appeal.

The appeal upheld the original decision, and it was still very difficult to get Shin to leave the piste. An official came over to her and asked her repeatedly in French to move. Finally she stood (and was off the strip for the first time in the better part of an hour), but after that it still took her a while to leave.

Overall, I thought this was a really unfortunate situation, and as the announcers in the arena kept stressing, this was not the fault of either fencer. Both Heidemann and Shin fenced a wonderful bout, keeping good distance and waiting patiently for the right opportunities to attack, and both Heidemann’s fleches and Shin’s counter attacks were really impressive. It was really sad that such a good bout had to end in such controversy.

Bronze medal bout

Shin came out still looking like she'd been crying -- which, you know, she had. She got the first touch, and such a cheer went up. She and Sun seemed to have really similar styles. Sun bent a little to get a leg touch, and Shin just went in and got the point. 2-0. They were fencing mostly on Shin's side of the piste. Shin fleched towards Sun, and both fencers scored. 3-1. Sun go the next touch, hitting Shin's shoulder during Shin's second intention. Shin looked really unhappy with herself. Sun lunged in, and Shin did a stop hit to Sun's shoulder. 4-2, Shin. Double touch, so 5-3, and that's how the period ended.

Shin started the next period by getting a toe touch. Double touch, so 7-4, Shin. Sun fleched, and Shin tripped while trying to retreat, so she fell backwards. Sun tapped Shin's shoulder in apology, and Shin held up a hand. Shin attacked, and Sun got a stop hit to the underside of Shin's arm. 6-7. Sun then got a hit on the torso right by Shin's right shoulder. They started to get a lot more aggresive then, about halfway through the second period. Shin displaced down and got a touch. Shin then did a really wide lunge and got a toe touch. Sun fleched in and got the touch, so 8-9, Shin still leading. Shin's stop hit could have been much better placed, and it might have been a double touch. Same thing again, and the score was tied. That was three points Sun had gotten with one light off of fleches. The second period ended with the score tied 9-9.

To start the third period, Sun fleched and scored again. Shin tried to displace down, but Sun still hit. Shin fleched in and hit, but Sun's stop hit landed, as well. 11-10, Sun. After I took a phone call, the score was 12-11. Sun fleched again -- look, if it works and your opponent is having trouble defending it, keep diong it -- and actually got contact on Shin's blade to keep any counter attack from landing. Sun, 13-11. Shin came in to get a toe touch, missed, and Sun counter attacked to Shin's back. 14-11. Sun attacked to Shin's lower arm and won, 15-11.

Final bout, Heidemann v. Shemyakina.

Shemyakina got the first touch... in the second period. Yes, they killed nearly a whole minute to start, so they went to the second period after that minute. With 1:41 left in the second period, double touch. Heidemann more bounced back and forth on her feet, and Shemyakina bounced more straight up and down. Heidemann fleched, and both the fleche and Shemyakina't hit on a displacement down landed. 3-2, Shemyakina, and that was the score at the end of the second period.

Shemyakina got a toe touch seven seconds into the final period. Double touch, so 5-3. Heidemann kept doing this sort of balestra-like thing, but without the lunge, and she kept lower and her en guard got a lot more narrow. Heidemann got a touch, so 4-5. Shemyakina then got an attack to Heidemann's outer shoulder. Heidemann attacked and got a touch to Shemyakina's shoulder. Then, for the second time in the bout, Heidemann asked for a halt to move her hair out of her face. Heidemann then got a touch to Shemyakina's lower outside quadrant -- weird epee spot. Double touch with Heidemann's attack and Shemyakina's stop hit. 7-7. With 40 seconds left, again Heidemann attacked, and again both the attack and Shemyakina's stop hit landed. That made the score 8-8, and that was how regular time ended.

Heidemann fleched, and Shemyakina's counter attack hit, too, so nothing done. Shemyakina had to straighten her epee, though. Same thing -- "rien." Nothing done. Then, yet again, Heidemann fleched, but Shemyakina's stop hit landed long before Heidemann's fleche hit Shemyakina's back. Shemyakina won the gold medal bout 9-8.