Olympic Fencing 2016: Sunday's Medal Winners, Scores and Results

After a brief reprieve at the 2012 Olympics in London, the men's team epee fencing event was back in Rio de Janeiro, and France picked up where it left off.

The French earned their third straight gold medal in the event with a 45-31 win over Italy in Sunday's final. They previously won gold at the 2004 and 2008 Games, and the event was left off the 2012 Olympic card.

France and Italy have won every Olympic gold medal in the team epee event since 1996. Italy won in 1996 and 2000 before ceding to this period of French dominance.

Match	Result
Gold Medal	France def. Italy, 45-31
Bronze Medal	Hungary def. Ukraine, 39-37

After looking dangerously close to elimination in the semifinals against Hungary, France went on the attack in the gold-medal match. The French dominated from the outset, slowly building a lead that wound up reaching double digits for most of the second half.

Italy, which looked dominant in wiping out Ukraine in the semifinals, had no answer for the loaded France team. Gauthier Grumier looked like one of the world's best after his bronze-medal performance in the individual epee competition, but Daniel Jerent proved why he's a top-five guy in his own right Sunday. Jean-Michel Lucenay and Yannick Borel were also strong and seemed to feed on the moment.

Paralympic champion Arnaud Assoumani was impressed with Borel in particular:

Borel was out there for the ninth round and got France to 45 points against 23-year-old Italian Marco Fichera. At the age of 27, Borel earned his first Olympic medal in Rio.

The win broke a tie with Italy for the most all-time medals in the team epee event. France now holds the record with nine.

The win gave France its sixth gold medal in Rio, tying it for eighth among all countries. Italy's silver was its 20th medal of the Games, which is good for seventh place in the overall medal count.

Earlier in the day, Hungary earned a thrilling 39-37 win over Ukraine for the bronze. The hotly contested match went down to the wire, with Hungary barely keeping the lead as time ran out in the ninth round.

Hungary, with 12 medals, sits in a tie for 11th place with Canada.