In the men's events, Alaaeldin Abouelkassem, who captured gold in the individual and team foil events at the 2011 Pan Arab Games, won a silver medal in the men's foil, after the losing the final against Lei Sheng of China. To qualify for the final he defeated American Miles Chamley-Watson, Germany's Peter Joppich, Italy's Andrea Cassarà, and South Korea's Choi Byung-Chul, and became the first African to win an Olympic fencing medal. One of his teammates, Tarek Ayad, who had also been part of the gold medal-winning foil team at the 2011 Pan Arab Games and had won bronze individually, defeated fellow Egyptian Anas Mostafa in the opening round, before losing to Aleksey Cheremisinov of Russia in the round of 32. Fayez, who won gold in the individual and team épée events at the 2011 Pan Arab Games, and Zeid were defeated in their opening rounds by eventual gold medalist Rubén Limardo of Venezuela and Malaysia's Yu Peng Kean respectively. None of the women won any bouts in London, but Shaimaa El-Gammal became the first Egyptian female to compete in four Olympics, having taken part in the 2000, 2004, and 2008 editions.