Aldo Montano Golden in Men’s Sabre

Aldo Montano (ITA) defeated Nicolas Limbach (GER) in the finals to claim Italy’s second world championship of the evening.  Limbach earlier had negated an all-Italy final by defeating Tarantino in a hotly contested match in the semi-finals.

Aldo Montano started the day as the 8th seed, but bested the top seed to reach a final bout with #3 Nicolas Limbach (GER).  In the finals Limbach raced out to a 3-0 lead, but Montano turned the tables just as quickly for an 8-4 lead for the Italian fencer heading into the minute break.

In the second period, Montano kept the 4 point lead up to 8-12.  At 14-9 Limbach started to rally, scoring 4 touches in a row to bring him within 1 point.  The comeback would fall short, however, as Montano scored the final touch for a 15-13 win.

Montano started the day as the 8th seed and cruised through the opening rounds with bouts against Caglayan Nehir Firat (TUR) – 15-6, Eun Seok Oh (KOR) – 15-8, Philippe Beaudry (CAN) – 15-8 before the final 8.

In the top 8 Montano toppled top seed Woo Young Won (KOR) 15-8.  In the semi-finals he ran into a bit more difficulty against another Korean, Bon Gil Gu.  Montano made off with a 15-12 win to set up the final with Nicolas Limbach.

Limbach (Ger) the #3 seed faced an easy match against James Walsh (AUS) 15-3 and then faced teammate Max Hartung (GER).  At the break Limbach led Hartung by only 1 point, but then was able to put the bout away 15-10.  After that he earned wins against Giampiero Pastore (ITA) – 15-12 and then Aron Szilagyi (HUN) – 15-10.

In the semi-finals, Limbach raced out to a lead on Luigi Tarantino (ITA).  Just when it looked like Tarantino was going to implode, the Italian found his footing and reeled off several touches on Limbach.  All through the match both fencers tested the referee, calling for video review multiple times and adding a great deal of tension to the bout.

After the one minute break, the match was tied at 8, then again at 10 and 12.  At 12-all Limbach took the lead and forced the next 3 touches for a 15-12 win.

Upsets abound in the field

Fan favorites to win the World Championships, including Russian phenom Alexei Yakimenko (RUS) failed to make the quarter-finals.  Among the surprising early exits were Yakimenko, who lost in the top-16 to Dmitri Lapkes (BLR) in a 15-14 match , Rares Dumitrescu (ROU) who went out in the 32, and Bolande Apithy (FRA), who was out in the 64.  2008 Gold medalist Zhong Man (CHN) also was knocked out out in the 32.

US Heartbreakers

Tim Morehouse (USA) lost his opening match to Lapkes 15-14 and Daryl Homer (USA) lost 15-13 to Tiberiu Dolniceanu (ROU) and James Williams (USA) lost 15-8 to Zsolt Nemcsik (HUN).   The US men’s sabre squad will fence on October 14th in the team event.

Yakimenko was the favorite to win, though no fans who filled out brackets picked Montano.  The majority picked Yakimenko to win with a few for Limbach or Dumitrescu.

Final Results: (link)