Hong Kong athletes had won a total of 29 fencing medals before the 2023 edition, but none of them gold. China had the most fencing medals with 124, including 47 gold.
There are three weapons used in fencing: foil, sabre and épée, with each discipline being featured at the Hangzhou Asian Games.
Scoring in team fencing
Teams of three take part in nine individual bouts, with each fencer facing each of the opposing team once.
Bouts last three minutes, with the winners being the first team to reach 45 points or, if neither team do, the ones with the most points at the end of the ninth bout.
In the case of a tie, two fencers will be randomly selected to enter a sudden-death round, where the first to land a touch seals the team win.
Scoring in individual fencing
During individual competitions, a bout’s winner is the first fencer to reach a score of 15 touches, with each touch being worth a single point.
The bout is at most nine minutes and is subdivided into three equal periods, with minute-long breaks in between. If neither fencer reaches 15 points by the end of the allotted time, the one with the most points wins.
If the scores are level, the referee conducts a draw between the two fencers, before they head into one minute of sudden death, in which the fencer to score the first touch is the winner. If neither fencer scores, the winner is determined by the referee’s draw.
Touches with the blade: foil, sabre, épée
For foil and épée, touches only count with the tip of the blade, while sabre allows the fencer to use the tip, the front edge or the bottom third of the back edge.
Target areas: foil, sabre, épée
Sabre bouts count touches that land from the top of the head to the bend of the hips, both front and back.
During foil bouts, a touch is scored only when landing between the shoulders and groin, front or back, while the arms, head and legs are not counted.
In a rule specific to foil matches, the bout is stopped if a fencer touches their opponent outside the target area, resulting in a white light (rather than the usual green and red lights indicating which fencer collected a point) to indicate no points are awarded.
Conversely, the entire body is considered the target area for épée, including the head and feet.
Right of way: foil, sabre, épée
If two fencers touch at the same time in foil or sabre, the referee must award a point based on the “right of way”, a rule determining which fencer gets priority.
Épée does not use the right-of-way rule.
