Float like a butterfly, sting like Avdeev!

In depth analysis of the Men’s Epee Finals at the 2009 Fencing World Championships.

The Men’s Epee finals were hosted in Antalya, Turkey this past Sunday. The depth of the Men’s Epee talent pool is absolutely phenomenal, making for a very exciting event. The beautiful thing about Men’s Epee is that it is near impossible to predict the outcome of a tournament. Epee for the last decade has been heavily dominated by France, Italy and Pavel Kolobkov (Russia). Sunday however, a new Russian star has cemented himself among the top in the world.

Anton Avdeev, born in 1986, defeated Italy’s Matteo Tagliariol in the gold medal match 15 – 14. Tagliariol is no pushover; he won the 2008 Olympics in Beijing with a convincing victory over France’s Fabrice Jeannet 15-9.
In Beijing, Anton finished 22nd.

Anton Avdeev may be following where Pavel Kolobkov left off. It is very rare to see a successful Junior continue on to be successful in Senior events. Fabrice Jeannet and Pavel Kolobkov are the two most recent epeeists to have won Junior World’s and gone on to win a Senior World Championship title. While Anton hadn’t won a Junior World Championship event, he did finish 5th in Taebaek and 6th in Linz. Anton is considered small for an epeeist, standing at 5’8’’, but it does not stop him from defeating the taller and stronger opponents.

{sidebar id=1} Anton uses his speed and agility to compensate for the height disadvantage. He has very dynamic footwork and his blade is always active. This makes it very hard to catch him off balance and very hard to gauge when he is going to extend his arm. Anton’s dynamic footwork allows him to set the tempo and he is usually in control of when actions initiate. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to see any of Anton’s bouts prior to the semi finals match with Jose Luis Abajo so only speculations can be made about the previous bouts.

Jose Luis Abajo is a very strong and tall fencer from Spain. He finished 3rd at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. He has a very strong octave (8 parry) and his attacks are very deep. He launches his attacks from a far distance, but increases his speed as he approaches the target. When I saw Anton would be fencing Jose Luis I got excited (note that I typically get excited watching any fencing). I knew this bout would be height and power versus speed and technical ability. Avdeev is one of my favourite fencers (second to Zawrotniak) so naturally I was cheering for him. He got off to an amazing start picking apart Jose Luis with parry-ripostes and compound attacks. Anton was well aware of Jose Luis strong octave (8 parry) and he made sure to avoid it at all costs. Oddly enough Anton’s strength on the defence was his octave! Jose Luis has a very long lunge that he uses as a high-line feint with a finish to the leg. He was not successful with this action at all as I believe Anton was well aware of Jose Luis’ areas of excellence. Anton had a lot of tools to use for this bout. It seemed that Jose Luis did not respect Anton’s mobility and Anton was able to control Abajo’s distance. This allowed Anton to fleche whenever he pulled Jose Luis within his distance. Anton was able to parry riposte any of Jose Luis attacks and he was able to do compound attacks avoiding Abajo’s octave. The score was 12-5 after the first period. The final score was 15-6 securing Anton a spot in the finals.

The World Championship Finals provided us with an epic bout between Italy’s Matteo Tagliariol and Russia’s Anton Avdeev. Tagliariol has been tearing up event after event since he won Olympic gold in Beijing. His confidence is apparent in every action he does. He has the fastest hand in men’s epee and he utilizes the coupe (flick) better than anyone before. Along with his deadly hand speed he has an amazing sixte and very active footwork. The only weakness I can see with Matteo is at times he can become impatient, causing him to rush his attacks. Matteo has a very strong remise lunge that he likes to launch without preparation. He attacks high line and immediately remises low line. I feel however that this attack isn’t as strong against smaller opponents like Avdeev.

The elimination final started with a lot of movement so the fencers could feel each other out and look for patterns and to establish a rhythm. The first point is scored 50 seconds into the match, by Anton. Anton did a compound attack, feigning into Tagliariol’s sixte and finishing low line to Matteo’s flank. The first period consisted of Matteo trying to get in close to Anton and finish with a simple extension. It wasn’t successful as Anton’s technical ability allowed him to score at the short distance. The score at the end of the first period was 4-2 for Anton. Matteo did not attempt to get close to Anton before attacking for the rest of the bout.

The second period started off much the same as the first, with a lot of movement. Anton tested his fleche but found out how quick Matteo’s hand really is. Matteo easily parried Anton’s fleche and hit him with a riposte. Matteo then attacked right off the line to surprise Anton tieing the score 4 – 4. The next attack Matteo attempted his lunge remise attack I had mentioned earlier. It failed and Anton had no problems accepting the touch Matteo gave him. Matteo changed his tactics and attempted to use his deceptive footwork to push and pull Anton. As soon as Matteo knew he had control of the movement he surprised Anton with a beautiful attack to the foot. Matteo took advantage of Anton being surprised and once again attacked off the line for a quick point to take the lead 6-5. Matteo utilized the lead to draw an attack from Anton that was easily countered. Matteo continued to control Avdeev’s movement and once again drew an attack from Anton that was launched right into Matteo’s strongest parry; sixte. Matteo continued with his game plan, pulling Anton within distance allowing Matteo to attack whenever he pleased. This game plan worked well enough to put Matteo ahead 9-6. Then Anton changed. Anton became more dynamic with his footwork and was able to surprise Matteo with simple extension attacks. Anton tied the score 9 – 9 going into the second period break.

The third period began just as active as the previous two, with both fencers trying to establish dominance over the tempo and rhythm. Anton attacked with a fleche disengage and scored to give him the lead. Matteo was quick to tie the bout with a counter attack on Anton’s next lunge. The intensity in the bout increased almost exponentially with the next two touches being doubles. Matteo attempted to surprise Anton off the line but put too much into his attack and Anton’s focus was there to help him score the touch with a parry-riposte. Matteo tried another surprise attack off the line which Anton was just as ready for. 14-12 for Anton. Anton attempted a fleche to finish the bout off, but he unleashed his attack well out of context and Matteo had no problem parrying the blade and finishing the attack for a point to make the score 14-13. Anton kept his blade very active so Matteo couldn’t predict when an attack was coming and also so Matteo couldn’t land a coupe to Anton’s forearm. Usually in these situations when the score is close and it is in the finals you are very likely to see a direct attack as both fencers don’t want to take any risks. Anton however initiated a beautiful compound attack once again feigning high line and finishing low. Matteo missed the parry but landed a coupe to Anton’s back as Anton closed the distance to score a double. Anton won 15-14 in a very close bout.

Both fencers were very tactical from the beginning of the bout. A lot of movement trying to get the other fencer to attack in the wrong context and off balance, but both fencers were able to control themselves and limit their mistakes. Both fencers had a healthy mix of defensive actions and offensive actions to make the bout extremely exciting. I would like to give congratulations to both Matteo and Anton for fencing an amazing final bout. It will be interesting to watch Anton this upcoming season.

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