Olympic Preview: Men's Individual Sabre

20 years ago, the United States won it’s last fencing medal in this very event. Olympian Peter Westbrook won the bronze medal in Los Angeles in 1984 and has since started the Peter Westbrook Foundation in New York to help improve lives through fencing. This year two of his pupils - Ivan Lee and Keeth Smart - are looking to end the medal drought.

Charikov (R) makes an attack at the NYC World Cup. Photo courtesy Serge Timacheff/FencingPhotos.com

Edit: Updated 8/12/04 at 1:40PM EDT with first round draws.

Their path to the medal rounds will be difficult, however. In 2003, Keeth Smart became the first US fencer to claim a #1 world ranking. Since then he has slipped and is currently ranked 25th. Teammate Ivan Lee put together a strong season, including a bronze medal at the NYC World Cup, to move up to a #19 world ranking.

The US fencers will have to find ways to solve the games of gold medal winner Stanisalv Pozdniakov of Russia and the reigning world champion Vladimir Lukashenko of the Ukraine.

Pozdniakov is the favorite to win the gold medal, winning 3 world cup events this year and peaking at the end of the season by winning the last 2 events he has entered. Lukashenko’s victories were towards the beginning of the season and while he is still a contender, he has cooled off.

Men’s Sabre runs deep - with fencers down to the #18 world rank putting together a win, so upsets are possible, but only Pozdniakov and Lukashenko have more than one win this season - which sets them up to be the favorites.

Competitors at the 2004 Olympic Men’s Sabre Event:

Initial Seed	** Name **	** First name **	** Country **	World Rank
1	LUKASHENKO	Vladimir	UKR	1
2	POZDNIAKOV	Stanislav	RUS	2
3	COVALIU	Mihai	ROM	3
4	CHARIKOV	Serguei	RUS	4
5	NEMCSIK	Zsolt	HUN	5
6	MONTANO	Aldo	ITA	6
7	TARANTINO	Luigi	ITA	7
8	LAPKES	Dmitri	BLR	8
9	DIATCHENKO	Alexei	RUS	9
10	LENGYEL	Balazs	HUN	10
11	FERJANCSIK	Domonkos	HUN	11
12	TOUYA	Gael	FRA	12
13	PILLET	Julien	FRA	13
14	TOUYA	Damien	FRA	14
15	MEDINA	Fernando	ESP	16
16	LEE	Ivan	USA	19
17	KOTHNY	Wiradech	THA	20
18	PASTORE	Gianpiero	ITA	22
19	SZNAJDER	Rafal	POL	23
20	OH	Eun Seok	KOR	24
21	SMART	Keeth	USA	25
22	BOULOS	Michel	CAN	26
23	TRETIAK	Vladislav	UKR	27
24	KALUJNY	Vladimir	UKR	29
25	ROGERS	Jason	USA	30
26	CHEN	Feng	CHN	45
27	HUANG	Yaojiang	CHN	46
28	MANETAS	Constantine	GRE	47
29	AMAYA CAMEJO	Alberto	CUB	56
30	ZHOU	Hanming	CHN	62
31	NAGARA	Masashi	JPN	65
32	REBAI	Mohamed	TUN	68
33	BASMATZIAN	Marios	GRE	76
34	AGRESTA	Renzo	BRA	110
35	DOURAKOS	Jason	GRE	127
36	BENCHEHIMA	Reda	ALG	NR
37	BERNAOUI	Nassim	ALG	NR
38	BERNAOUI	Raoul	ALG	NR
39	KEMBE	Sorel-Arthur	CGO	NR

In the round of 32, all of the US fencers look to pull matches where they will be challenged, but they have had success against these fencers before. In the round of 16, Ivan Lee looks to match up against Pozdniakov. If he makes it through that match, the way to a medal looks clear.

Keeth Smart has finished in the top eight in the world consistently over the past season. Though Europeans have dominated the sport throughout history, the world is on Smart-Watch as Keeth now threatens the Russian domination of Men’s Saber.

Other potential medalists include Mihai Covaliu or Romania and Sergei Charikov of Russia. Both of these fencers are strong competitors and have significant wins to their credit.

In the end, it will come down to speed and precision. Sabre is the fastest weapon with the smallest tolerance for mistakes. The fencer that shows up feeling “on” will win the day.

Medal Picks:
Gold: Stanislav Pozdniakov (RUS)
Silver: Zsolt Nemcsik (HUN)
Bronze: Keeth Smart (USA)

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Initial Bracket for the 2004 Olympic Men’s Sabre Event:

1	LUKASHENKO Vladimir	UKR
			LUKASHENKO Vladimir
64
33	AGRESTA Renzo	BRA
32	REBAI Mohamed	TUN
17	KOTHNY Wiradech	THA
			KOTHNY Wiradech
48
49
			MEDINA Fernando
16	MEDINA Fernando	ESP
9	LENGYEL Balazs	HUN
			LENGYEL Balazs
56
41
			TRETIAK Vladislav
24	TRETIAK Vladislav	UKR
25	ROGERS Jason	USA
			ROGERS Jason
40
57
			TARANTINO Luigi
8	TARANTINO Luigi	ITA
5	NEMCSIK Zsolt	HUN
			NEMCSIK Zsolt
60
37	BERNAOUI Nassim	ALG
28	HUANG Yaojiang	CHN
21	BOULOS Michel	CAN
			BOULOS Michel
44
53
			FERJANCSIK Domonkos
12	FERJANCSIK Domonkos	HUN
13	TOUYA Damien	FRA
			TOUYA Damien
52
45
			SZNAJDER Rafal
20	SZNAJDER Rafal	POL
29	ZHOU Hanming	CHN
36	DOURAKOS Jason	GRE
61
			COVALIU Mihai
4	COVALIU Mihai	ROM
3	CHARIKOV Serguei	RUS
			CHARIKOV Serguei
62
35	KEMBE Sorel-Arthur	CGO
30	AMAYA CAMEJO Alberto	CUB
19	OH Eun Seok	KOR
			OH Eun Seok
46
51
			PILLET Julien
14	PILLET Julien	FRA
11	TOUYA Gael	FRA
			TOUYA Gael
54
43
			SMART Keeth
22	SMART Keeth	USA
27	MANETAS Constantine	GRE
38	BERNAOUI Raouf Salim	ALG
59
			MONTANO Aldo
6	MONTANO Aldo	ITA
7	LAPKES Dmitri	BLR
			LAPKES Dmitri
58
39	BENCHEHIMA Reda	ALG
26	CHEN Feng	CHN
23	KALUJNY Vladimir	UKR
			KALUJNY Vladimir
42
55
			DIATCHENKO Alexei
10	DIATCHENKO Alexei	RUS
15	LEE Ivan	USA
			LEE Ivan
50
47
			PASTORE Gianpiero
18	PASTORE Gianpiero	ITA
31	NAGARA Masashi	JPN
34	BASMATZIAN Marios	GRE
63
			POZDNIAKOV Stanislav
2	POZDNIAKOV Stanislav	RUS