Sabre, Individual, Men

Between Beijing and London, Germany’s Nicolas Limbach had been the top sabre fencer in the world and had reached all three World Championships in this period. Unsurprisingly Limbach was the number one seed in London.

The opening rounds of competition passed off rather uneventfully but the round of 16 heralded the start of a massacre of the top seeded combatants. Recently crowned European champion Aleksey Yakimenko of Russia, #3 seed Gu Bon-Gil of Korea and former Olympic champions Aldo Montano and Zhong Man were all eliminated in quick succession. This left Limbach as an even clearer favourite for the Olympic title but his hopes only lasted as far as his next contest where he was upset by the third string Russian Nikolay Kovalyov.

The foil event in London saw the full emergence of Asia and Africa as new powers in the sport but sabre remained true to its European heartland and the final was played out between representatives of Hungary and Italy, traditionally two of the historic powerhouses of sabre fencing. Áron Szilágyi of Hungary and Italian Diego Occhiuzzi had been successful as individuals but their major championship medals had mostly been achieved in team events. At #6 and #14 in the rankings few would have predicted they would face other for the gold medal in London.

As a contest the Olympic final was over by the half way stage. The Hungarian showed a dazzling turn of speed to win 8 of the first 9 points and, try as he might; Occhiuzzi was unable to claw back the deficit. Szilágyi’s win was the 13th victory for Hungary in the event but the first since the Barcelona Games of 1992.