Men's competition is due to be held over two days at the BOK Hall in the Hungarian capital, which hosted an FIE Grand Prix in the épée discipline earlier this month.

This is the first men's sabre World Cup event since Georgia's capital Tbilisi staged one in January.

Home favourite Sandro Bazadze prevailed on that occasion, beating Russia's Kamil Ibragimov in the final.

Bazadze is fourth in the 2021-2022 season rankings, with Hungary's Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion Áron Szilágyi leading the way on 243 points.

South Korean pair Oh Sang-uk and Kim Jung-hwan - team gold medallists at Tokyo 2020 - are second and third respectively with 240 and 187 respectively.

They helped South Korea to win the team event in Tbilisi.

Bazadze's individual victory in Tbilisi contributes to his points tally of 186.

All four of the frontrunners are on the entry list for Budapest, but fifth-placed Ibragimov will be among the absentees, with the FIE having banned athletes and officials from Russia and Belarus from its competitions in line with recommendations from the International Olympic Committee.

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, FIE President Alisher Usmanov has also stood aside "until justice is restored".

The Uzbekistan-born billionaire was named by the Official Journal of the European Union as a "pro-Kremlin oligarch with particularly close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin", and subject to economic sanctions and travel restrictions by the EU on February 28.

A women's sabre FIE World Cup has been held since the introduction of punitive measures on Russia and Belarus.

In Athens, it was a Russian-born Azerbaijani fencer Anna Bashta who made it back-to-back FIE World Cup victories, following up her success in Plovdiv in January by beating Spain's Lucia Martin-Portugues in the final.

The ban on Russian athletes has blown the women's sabre rankings wide open, with two of the top three places occupied by fencers from the country.

Olympic silver medallist Sofya Velikaya still leads on 209 points, with Tokyo 2020 champion Sofia Lokhanova holding 162.

They are separated by France's Olympic bronze medallist Manon Apithy-Brunet, who has the chance to move top in Istanbul as she trails Velikaya by just five points.

London 2012 Olympic champion and Tokyo 2020 team bronze medallist Kim Ji-yeon of South Korea is fourth on 148, closely followed by Ukraine's Olga Kharlan, who is not on the entry list in the Turkish city.

Liza Pusztai of Hungary is sixth on 142.

Bashta is ninth after her two wins in Plovdiv and Athens.

The women's sabre FIE World Cup is set to be held at the Basaksehir Youth and Sports Hall.

Individual competitions is scheduled for tomorrow and Friday (March 19), followed by the team event on Saturday (March 20).

The same timeline is in place for the men's sabre World Cup in Budapest.