A team consisting of individual gold and silver medallists Yana Egorian and Sofya Velikaya were always going to prove difficult to beat.

And so it proved, as the quartet - also consisting of Ekaterina Dyachenko and Yuliya Gavrilova - duly lost just one of their nine bouts in the final.

It ensured a clinical 45-30 victory over the Beijing 2008 Olympic champions.

It marked the country's fourth fencing a gold of the Games, a feat only exceeded by five-time winners France and Italy at respective Paris 1900 and Antwerp 1920 editions.

"It's very important that we all won and it's a big effort together when you're fighting personally, you have more time, but here it's just five hits and then off you go, you have to change again," said Velikaya afterwards.

"It's unparalleled happiness. It can't be described by any other words.

"We would like to dedicate this medal to the athletes who were not able to compete in these Games."

Every Russian fencer was deemed eligible to compete, but no athletics athletes or weightlifters are here following allegations of state sponsored doping.

Those from various other sports have also been ruled out.

Russia's toughest challenge came in the semi-finals, when a 10-point run from Muslim-American Ibtihaj Muhammad, the first Olympian from her country to compete wearing a hijab, pushed them close.

The US then beat Italy 45-30 for bronze, with US anchor Mariel Zagunis taking a fourth Olympic medal.

"This has been a long journey for us," Muhammad said. 

"To be able to compete at the level that we've worked toward, on the world's biggest stage, the Olympic Games, is truly a blessing for us.

"I'll never forget this moment."