Bardenet triumphed in Argentina's capital Buenos Aires in March, and doubled up on this year's circuit with a narrow 13-12 victory in the final against Hungary's Mate Tamas Koch at the Başakşehir Gençlik ve Spor İlçe Müdürlüğü Tesisleri in the Turkish city.

The world number five's run to the final was largely more comfortable, beginning with a 15-11 win against Chinese Taipei's Ge Yilu.

He overcame Kazakhstan's Ruslan Kurbanov 15-13 before easing past China's Wang Zijie 15-5 to set up a semi-final against European Championships silver medallist Tristan Tulen of The Netherlands, which Bardenet won 15-9.

Koch saw off Davide Di Veroli 15-8 in his semi-final, his second straight victory against an Italian opponent after beating Federico Vismara 15-14 in the last eight.

Vismara had claimed an impressive 15-10 win against the Olympic champion Romain Cannone of France in the round-of-16.

Kazakhstan's Elmir Alimzhanov, Kurbanov, Yerlik Sertay and Vadim Sharlaimov took team gold in Istanbul, winning their final 34-20 against the Dutch team of Ruben Derksen, Tristan Tulen, Rafaël Tulen and David van Nunen.

South Korea lost 45-27 to The Netherlands in the semi-finals, but Kim Jae-won, Kweon Young-jun, Ma Se-geon and Son Tae-jin took bronze by beating Spain 39-38.

Istanbul marked the final men's épée FIE World Cup before the World Championships in the Italian city of Milan in July.

Russian and Belarusian athletes have controversially been permitted to return to FIE competitions as neutrals, but several leading fencers remain unable to participate for failing to meet International Olympic Committee-recommended conditions of not supporting the war in Ukraine and not being affiliated to the military.

Russian Fencing Federation President Ilgar Mammadov claimed there was "no time" to participate at the World Cup in Istanbul.