Men’s Foil Team Olympic Preview

{mosimage}The 2004 Olympic Games are less than a month away.  The regular World Cup season is now complete and the athletes are busy preparing for the Olympic competition.  Over the next week, Fencing.Net will take a look at the field in all weapons for both team and individual event.  Today we take a look at Men’s Foil.

Team Event Outlook

The team event is made up of 8 teams that have qualified by either being in the top 4 of the world rankings or by being the top country in their region during the qualifying period.  The 8 teams that are qualified for the Olympics are shown here in the direct elimination table.

Men’s Team Foil: Direct Elimination Table:

This looks to be a 2-horse race between Italy and Germany.  The two teams have split the 6 events during the regular season, with each winning 3.  Italy has momentum on their side as they have won the last 2 events, while Germany placed a season-worst 5th in the final event of the season.

The United States has a difficult draw against Germany in the first round.  The US knocked off Germany at the Havana World Cup in June and ended up finishing 4th.  This should give the US team of Dan Kellner, Jon Tiomkin, and Jedediah Dupree confidence heading into their match against the Germans.  The Germans, however, have a loss fresh on their minds and will be looking to avenge that in Athens.

Russia will most likely defeat a French team that is on the decline, but will run into a wall against Italy in the semi-finals.  Italy’s power-marching game has wrecked havoc on the more finesse-oriented games of the French, Russians, and Chinese this year, as evidenced by Italy’s sweep of the 1, 2, and 3 individual world ranks.

The most interesting bout looks to be the projected semi-final between Germany and China.  China is a team on the cusp – they took 2nd to Italy at the 2003 World Championships but haven’t been able to put together a meaningful run this season.  They always come out and do well at big events, but have never been able to do what is needed to earn the win.

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Germany looks to be the best equipped to challenge Italy.  The Germany “anti-march” style looks designed specifically to counter Italy’s strong marching attacks.  The German style has been effective as evidenced by the 2003 Individual World Championships final bout.

In the bronze medal match, Russia and China will have a match of similar styles.  Russia has the advantage here, as they have been the stronger team over the regular season including taking 2nd at 3 of the last 4 World Cups.

Prediction: 
Gold: Italy, Silver: Germany, Bronze: Russia.

Tomorrow: Individual Outlook.