OREANDA-NEWS. Russian epee fencers Pavel Sukhov, Sergei Bida, Nikita Glazkov and Sergei Khodos won Olympic silver in the team tournament.

In the final, Sukhov, Bida and Glazkov lost to the representatives of Japan with a score of 36:45.

A silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics immediately after the team final is perceived as a defeat, said Russian epee fencer Pavel Sukhov. "The medal is incredibly cool, but now you don't feel it. Now there is frustration from the lost fight. We perceive everything as a defeat. We expected to take gold when we reached the final. But if you ask me the same thing after the awards ceremony, I will answer that the silver - this is unrealistically cool, "Sukhov told reporters.

For the Russian national team, this is the first medal in this type of fencing in 25 years. For the second time in history, Russian epee fencers won silver medals in the team tournament, earlier at the 1996 Games in Atlanta, Alexander Beketov, Pavel Kolobkov and Valery Zakharevich became silver medalists. In addition, domestic epee fencers won bronze in the team tournament at the Games in 1992. Russian and Soviet epee fencers have never become Olympic champions in the men's team tournament. The epee players of the USSR national team in this type of program won one silver (1968) and four bronze awards (1960, 1972, 1980, 1988).

Bronze was won by the South Korean team.

The national team has a total of 34 awards, of which ten are gold, 14 are silver and ten are bronze. Russia is currently ranked fourth in the overall standings.