ATHENS, 23 August – Italy’s Aldo MONTANO and Salvatore SANZO were the most successful fencers at the 2004 Olympic Games, each winning one gold and one silver medal.
MONTANO claimed gold in the Men’s Individual Sabre with a narrow win over Hungary’s Zsolt NEMCSIK and then with his teammates, received a silver medal in the Men’s Team Sabre event after a defeat to France.
SANZO claimed silver in the Men’s Individual Foil after a defeat to France’s Brice GUYART, but was more successful as part of the Italy team that won the Men’s Team Foil competition.
Andrea CASSARA (ITA) also managed to get two medals, but could only match an Individual Foil bronze to the gold he received as part of the successful Foil team.
French fencer, Maureen NISIMA also clamed two medals; two bronze, while teammate Laura FLESSEL-COLOVIC received a silver in the Women’s Individual Epee and a bronze in the Team Epee.
Italy was top of fencing’s medal table with seven medals, just one ahead of France on six. Hungary and Russia were next best ranked with three and four medals respectively.
America’s 19-year-old Mariel ZAGUNIS became the star of fencing in the USA when she won the first ever Olympic Games Women’s Sabre gold medal, despite being an outsider behind her fellow Americans the JACOBSON sisters (Emily and Sada).
Arguably, the best performance from a country in the Olympic Fencing Tournament came from Switzerland. They recorded a one hundred per cent success rate as the only athlete to represent the country, Marcel FISCHER, took gold in the Men’s Individual Epee.
The Men’s Team Foil between Italy and China was unfortunately controversial, as a string of mistakes from referee Joszef HIDASI (HUN) in the bout drew the attention of the International Federation. It decided to immediately expel the referee from its list for the Olympic Games and exclude him from the FIE’s referees list for a period of two years.
The biggest surprise from the fencers of the host country was the result from Jeanne HRISTOU (GRE). She almost beat the star of French fencing FLESSEL-COLOVIC, eventually losing by only two points.
Another highlight for the hosts, and a boost for the sport in Greece, was when its Women’s Epee Team came close to shocking Germany in the quarterfinal, going down in the end by just a single point.
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