I'll occasionally write a review of the DVDs that Sabreur sent me, to the extent that I remember what happened and how it went.
Last night, I watched the Men's Foil Team finals (bronze and gold). US vs Russia for the Bronze and China vs Italy for the gold.
The US vs Russia match was quite exciting as the US held onto a very slim lead for most of the encounters. Tiomkin's first two bouts were quite inspired and very acrobatic (recall the photo of him 5 feet up in the air...unfortunately, it did not result in a touch, but instead a yellow card when he finally came down, on top of Ganeev). Jed was just a bit too cautious in his bouts, and pulled strong in his last bout against Ganeev (as it were, Ganeev was the US's whipping boy). Ganeev also looks a lot like Forrest MacDougall (for those who know him).
The fencing was spot on for both sides, although to excessive use of the flick will become a factor this season: many of those would just not register now. (BTW, I field tested some flick hits last night, thanks to JEC for the chips: flick ripostes will probably still hit, but flick attacks probably won't. A flick riposte is performed from a better angle than the flick attack, thereby increasing the odds of success. Since I usually shoot about 75-80% success in my flicks, not hitting a couple didn't really faze me.)
The problem with the US was their inability to put the game away. They'd make several very critical and inspiring hits to get ahead by one or two, only to drop a touch or two on mentally unprepared actions.
Lots of false stop hits, coupled with attempts at real stop hits (by both sides).
The refereeing was very good. The several times that the fencers questioned the call (and I agreed with the fencer), the slo-mo replay clearly indicated the referee was right. Part of the problem for me was the inability to hear blade contact, so a search that fails to find the blade doesn't look much different from a search that succeeds.
As to the gold medal bout between Italy and China, I would say that there may have been one or two controversial calls that went Italy's way, way early in the match (within the first three encounters). There was one between Vanni and Dong where it looked quite simultaneous and was called for Italy. But that's so early in the match that it really shouldn't affect the tenor of the match.
Wu was exceptionally gifted with an incredible stop-hit. Cassara would chase Wu down the strip, but Wu kept cool and maintained distance. Then, bloop, a quick stop-thrust right into the chest and walks away with one light. I think Wu came back 8-3 in that encounter (after an 8-2 win for Vanni against Dong).
As for the constant falling, they all seemed unintentional, but I think the referee could have penalized the fencers for being reckless. Kieplekowski (sp?) the Polish referee did penalize Vanni for staging an injury. Red card. Vanni got two red cards during that encounter.
There were hardly as many back flicks in this match as there were in the US v Russia match. The chinese were very good at displacing target to avoid being hit by flicks. (For those who say that flicks can't be defended against, this match - as well as the US-Russia match - showed how to not get hit by flicks: stop-hits early on.)
The chinese were down quite a bit going into the last bout and Dong pulled even on the score against Sanzo at 42-42. Then he let up off the gas a bit and Sanzo finished him off. It was a good match and I don't think the refereeing issue was so much a factor. Yes, there were maybe one or two "reputation" touches for Italy, but at such an early portion of the game, it really didn't matter. (I'd compare it to the Russia-Hungary WST match in 2002. There were some calls that went for Hungary early on and Hungary pulled to an incredible 30-14 or so lead. Russia came back and won, 45-42 or something like that. But then, at the end, the "hmmm...how did he call it that way" calls were for Russia.)
Based on the US fencers and Wu's fencing, I'd say both US and China stand a good chance doing well in the upcoming quadrennial, possibly a meet-up for a medal in the 2008 O's. The US needs to stay more mentally alert, need to be just a bit more crafty and not so nice. The Chinese will further improve their fencer's technical skills and will just blow everyone away.
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