Egypt's Épée Team Wins World Championship Bronze by a Single Touch

Egypt's men's épée team arrived at the World Fencing Championships ranked eighth. In Mahmoud Mohsen's 13 years with the national side, the team had never reached a World Championship semi-final, with sixth and seventh place among its best previous finishes.

Mohamed El-Sayed, Mahmoud El-Sayed, Youssef Shamel and Mahmoud Mohsen were determined to write a different story.

On July 29 in Hong Kong, the four beat the Israeli occupation team 39-38 in a golden-touch decider to win bronze, putting Egypt back on the World Championships podium for the first time since 1949.

A month before the Championships, the four had gathered for a training camp in Italy. Away from the piste, they had grown into something closer to brothers than teammates.

They watched out for one another, offered advice after mistakes and pushed each other through difficult sessions, building the kind of trust that would matter when the tournament failed to go according to plan.

All four were eliminated from the individual competition in the early rounds. For Mahmoud El-Sayed, the disappointment was particularly difficult, his tournament ending in the round of 128.

He chose to use it as motivation, writing afterwards that the result would stay with him because it "hurt a little more than usual."

"But I know I'll remember this moment when I achieve my goal and say, 'Thank God.' Hard work is never wasted. Tomorrow is a new beginning."

El-Sayed told SceneSports the defeat gave him more reason to analyse his mistakes and return to training harder, while holding on to the belief that this group had something different.

"We are not coming home without a medal," he wrote.

The individual competition was over. For the four fencers, the part of the tournament that mattered most was still ahead.

For Mohsen, the team event carried the weight of more than a decade. He has represented Egypt since 2013, and in all those years he had never seen the national épée team reach a World Championship semi-final.

"I've worn the Egyptian national team jersey since 2013, and throughout all these years, Egypt's épée team had never reached a World Championship semifinal," Mohsen told SceneSports. "It's difficult to put into words what this tournament and this medal mean to me."

Egypt entered the team competition ranked eighth, and few expected the quartet to make a deep run. They opened with a 44-33 win over Portugal, then edged Spain 36-35 in the round of 16.

Then came Russia.

In the quarter-final, Egypt produced its most dominant performance of the week, beating Russia 45-35 to reach the semi-final and give Mohsen the milestone he had waited 13 years for.

The run at gold ended there. Kazakhstan beat Egypt 41-32, leaving a bronze medal to fight for.

Youssef Shamel recalled the conversation that followed.

"We said we weren't going home without a medal. We were going to do everything we could. We came here for gold, but now we weren't leaving without bronze."

Another obstacle was waiting for them in the bronze-medal bout against the Israeli occupation team. Shamel had picked up a muscle injury earlier in the team competition, and it flared up again mid-match. With Egypt needing every member of the team, the timing could hardly have been worse.

Shamel stopped and took the five minutes allowed for medical treatment. The medical team administered painkillers, and he returned to the piste.

Stepping away was never really an option.

"As a national team, none of us has ever withdrawn," Mahmoud El-Sayed told SceneSports.

The two sides stayed within touching distance throughout, with neither able to create enough separation to feel safe. Every touch brought Egypt closer to the podium, and one mistake could have sent the team home empty-handed.

It came down to a single point. Mohamed El-Sayed took it, sealing a 39-38 win and a place on a podium Egyptian épée had not seen for 77 years.

What he did next travelled further than the result. He declined to shake hands with the Israeli fencers, then knelt and pointed towards the sky. International coverage turned the image into the defining moment of Egypt's run.

Mohamed later told the media his reaction was spontaneous. He had faced these opponents before and beaten them more than once, and winning alongside his teammates gave the victory a different weight.

The four had spent the previous month training together, absorbing setbacks together and holding their nerve after one bad result.

They initially believed they had won Egypt's first fencing medal at a World Championships. They later learned the country had won before, including bronze in men's team épée in 1949.

The discovery did little to diminish it. Three days after the medal, Mohamed El-Sayed, the world No.1 in épée and a Paris 2024 Olympic bronze medallist, sent a message to the team's WhatsApp group saying he still could not believe what they had done.

Mahmoud El-Sayed told SceneSports that Mohamed also said the World Championships bronze felt more special to him than his Olympic medal from Paris. Perhaps that is because this one belonged to all four of them.

It also reflected years of progress in Egyptian fencing, particularly in épée. Mohamed El-Sayed has risen to world No.1 and won Olympic bronze in Paris, while Ziad El-Sissy finished fourth at the same Games. Other Egyptian fencers have continued to make deep runs at major competitions, gradually changing the expectations around the national team.

That progress is visible at youth level too. Egyptian fencers have dominated the junior scene in recent years, winning World Junior Championship titles and establishing themselves across age groups.

The senior team's bronze is another sign that it is beginning to translate onto the biggest stage. For Mohsen, the medal means more than one tournament. He told SceneSports the result is proof that Egyptian épée can compete with the best in the world.

The team arrived ranked eighth. All four went out of the individual competition early. Their team campaign then took them past Portugal, Spain and Russia and into a semi-final Egypt had never reached.

They came wanting gold. When that was no longer possible, they changed the target and kept the determination behind it.

They were not leaving without a medal, and they kept that promise.

Three weeks later, two of them were back on a piste in Taranto. At the Mediterranean Games on August 23, Mohamed El-Sayed took gold in the individual épée and Youssef Shamel took silver behind him, an Egyptian one-two in the event both had gone out of early in Hong Kong. The individual medals they could not find in July arrived a month after the one they took together.