"Keeth, you are going to lose this bout if you run away." That was the message delivered by coach Yuri Gelman during the break in Smart’s top 16 match against Aron Szigyi of Hungary. Keeth applied pressure in the second period and used a combination of lighting fast (and long) flunging attacks and a few well timed ripostes to run away with a 15-10 win.
Smart went into the bout thinking like a boxer – "when you see the gloves go down, you jump in". He saw the Hungarian’s blade shaking a bit when they came on guard in their first every DE matchup, and Smart, the top US men’s sabre entry, took that as the opportunity to apply as much pressure as possible.
Though his opponent was a little nervous, Keeth kept his cool. "The doctors said I wasn’t even supposed to be here last April, so I decided to just enjoy the moment."
Smart credits a lot of his success to coach Yuri Gelman. Gelman has been Smart’s coach since he went to college at St. John’s and Smart appreciate’s Gelman’s direct style.
On preparing for his quarterfinal match: "I’m going to listen to some music. (Yuri) is going to do the tactical analysis and I’m going to (listen to) what he says."
Smart will fence against #20 Julien Pillet (FRA) who overcame 4th seed Romanian Rares Dumitrescu 15-13 in the round of 16.
Earlier in the day Smart bested team mate Jason Rogers. Tim Morehouse lost his top 32 match against Sanson (FRA).
The men’s sabre event has already seen a few surprising bouts, with perrenial world champion Stanislav Pozdniakov losing 15-8 to Lopez (FRA) in the round of 32 as well as #3 Aldo Montano who fell to Spain’s Jorge Pina in a thrilling 15-14 match.