Though Gerek Meinhardt is the youngest fencer in his event by over 4 years, he didn't let his youth or inexperience get the better of him. Meinhardt, the #9 seed, easily won hist first match against Egyptian Mostafa Nagati before losing to semi-finalist Zhu in the round of 16.
The stands were shaking and the noise levels at the Fencing Hall well above most rock concerts as ZHONG Man of China scored 6 unanswered points to run away with the gold medal at the 2008 Olympic Men's Sabre competition. Nicolas Lopez (FRA) led by as many as two points, and was up 8-6 at the break, but unable to hold on as Zhong tied the match and then took control.
"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.
34 year old Valentina Vezzali became the first Italian to win three consecutive gold medals when she defeated Korea's Nam Hyunhee 6-5 in the gold medal match at the Beijing Fencing Hall. Fellow Italian Margherita Granbassi bested teammate and former world champion Giovanna Trillini 15-12 for the bronze.
Matteo Tagliariol (pictured, right) came into his first Olympics with dreams of being a modern day d'Artagnan and bringing home Italy's first gold medal in this event in 48 years. Fabrice Jeannet came to Beijing to best his 5th place finish in 2004 and secure his name among France's great fencers.
