Olympics: Men's Epee Individual Preview

[Craig]

http://www.fencing101.com/content/view/286/2/

Took a gamble and picked Seth Kelsey to medal. When I interviewed him earlier this year I was impressed with his fighting spirit and he has the confidence level now to break seed against this field.

Actually, all of the men's epee fencers have had great tournaments. The trick is them all having a great tournament on the same two days.

Post your comments, criticisms, and picks in this thread. I've watched a bit of epee reviewing the DVDs, but I'm a foil fencer at heart and in my head so I'm basing my picks more on the stats than on anything else.

Craig

[Grasshopper]

http://www.fencing101.com/content/view/286/2/

Took a gamble and picked Seth Kelsey to medal. When I interviewed him earlier this year I was impressed with his fighting spirit and he has the confidence level now to break seed against this field.

Actually, all of the men's epee fencers have had great tournaments. The trick is them all having a great tournament on the same two days.

Post your comments, criticisms, and picks in this thread. I've watched a bit of epee reviewing the DVDs, but I'm a foil fencer at heart and in my head so I'm basing my picks more on the stats than on anything else.

Craig

Still gotta take Kolobkov for the gold, or maybe Lee from Korea.

[dreadfoily]

I wish I had followed more closely, it's good to see epee taking a front seat after being sort of in the background, or maybe I'm more aware of the sport now. But I like watching any good fencing, so may the best man win, and the hope is that there's a lot of spirit in the fencing.

[MHS Fencer]

Kelsey of Boczko for the Bronze is madness. Kelsey's a good fencer, and can give several people a run for their money, but some people he just can't fence. (I still have vivid memories of watching Marik just dismantle him in the final of the Cuba world cup last year). Kelsey's long, as is Mattern, but people can use that against them - notably Marik springs to mind, with his explosive jumping fleche (when he chooses to use it) but also from what I've seen Fischer could probably do something similar. Back to my madness comment - Boczko's specialty is perfect distance flicking over the bell - when you fence him you feel as if he's looming over you, waiting to pounce, kind of like a coiled Cobra - and strong parries to keep you out of there (although kelsey could sneak in a straight body shot sometimes if he catches Boczko off guard). Boczko's super-accurate flicks, however, will mostly nullify Kelsey's length and style (which is very much using that length, although his point control ain't bad) - if they meet up I have to pick Boczko.

And yes, this is Epee, so pretty much anything can happen, especially when you don't see a set tableau. A lot of the fencers have great energy (Carillo Ayana, Marik come to mind) and then others have technical precision that would make a swiss watchmaker green with envy (Kovacs). Of course, there are others with superb skill out there, although looking at the entries I can't help but wonder what happened to Atilla Fekete (why is Geza Imre or Kovacs ahead of him - I remember Fekete as being quite good).

Not looking at matchups, my prediction would be something along these lines. I haven't seen Boisse, Zhao, Kolobkov, or Lee in action (that i can remember), so I'm going more on my sense of them and sheer intuition (randomness).
Gold: Boisse
Silver: Fischer
Bronze: Zhao
4: Boczko
5-8: Kolobkov, Marik, Thompson, Lee
9-16: Rota, Jeannet, Obry, Kovacs, Mattern, Kelsey, Carillo Ayana, Khovorst

I'm looking for a solid showing by team USA, but nothing too extreme - a lot of people are gunning all out for those medals, and they're good, but they aren't top 4 caliber (despite some world cup results)

[sreckiki]

Not looking at matchups, my prediction would be something along these lines. I haven't seen Boisse, Zhao, Kolobkov, or Lee in action (that i can remember), so I'm going more on my sense of them and sheer intuition (randomness).
Gold: Boisse
Silver: Fischer
Bronze: Zhao
4: Boczko
5-8: Kolobkov, Marik, Thompson, Lee
9-16: Rota, Jeannet, Obry, Kovacs, Mattern, Kelsey, Carillo Ayana, Khovorst

Mostly agree with that.

Boisse is an awesome fencer who inheritated a lot of things from his father (P. Boisse is still a really good fencer who can be ranked in the best 20 in France...)

And Zhao had some really good results.

But...

First, I can't put Kolobkov off the podium. He finished third in the last European championship but the rumor said that he didn't fence really seriously in his semi-final against Marik... Of course, it's only a rumor, but...

Second, this is certainly the last OG for H.Obry... and this guy is an unbelievable fighter with some great results in his career. He's gonna do something there... Something great.

So...

Gold: Obry
Silver: Kolobkov
Bronze: Boisse
4th: Zhao
5-8: Marik, Fischer, Jeannet, Rota

Okay... it's a little bit biased...

[Gav]

I would never underestimate Kolobkov. He's too good. Obry for a medal as well. As good as the American Epeeists are in my opinion they are not likely to medal. Not when you've got the likes of Zhao, Marik, Jeannet et al in there. Koloblov and Obry to fight for Silver and Gold. Bronze? Not so sure. And then there's Rota? No one rates the world number one?

[glowstix]

1. jeannet-FRA (my fav. and i'm insisting on the gold medal finish)
2. kolobkov-RUS (very solid epee fencer and WILL medal)
3. fischer-SUI (someone i know will kill me if i don't pick him to medal )