SANZO Q&A WITH SCHERMAONLINE AFTER LEIPZIG

http://www.schermaonline.com/scherma...rder=0&thold=0

SCHERMAONLINE
Toti, you just won your second individual world title four years after Nimes 2001. Which of the two victories was the harder one in particular in view of the recent changes in foil?

SANZO
winning is never easy but I believe that this one was harder because of the new timings which have changed what you can and what you cannot do on the strip. Consequently this one gave me a greater satisfaction in the end.

SCHERMAONLINE
Where do you think you've improved the most in these past few years? Is it the technique, the athletic ability, or the mental game, or all of them. Did you change the way you train?

SANZO
Mentally, more than anything else. At least now I try to be more focused during the entire competition. Specifically, I try not to give even a single touch to my opponent and not to feel down when one of my touches is given, incorrectly, to my opponent by the referee.

SCHERMAONLINE
In the team competition there were big discussions about the referees which in this case have handicapped your team. Ditto for what happened at the Athens Olympics when the Hungarian referee came to be in the cross hair, guilty to have favored the Italians. Why can't we find a solution to this problem? What are your ideas on all this? What about the instant replay?

SANZO
Let me start by saying that we would have lost in any case to France at the team event in Leipzig, and that I take my full responsibility of this since as the team captain I should have held my teammates hands and pull them together -- Pozdiakov style, just to be clear, but one day I'll be able to do it. Mistakes by the judges are always part of the game and will continue to be. It's very difficult to judge well 40 touches. Therefore there is human error, in particular if you consider that these people are not professional referees and they are paid very little. See, I think that a solution could be to have fewer referees but to pay them adequately to allow them to do this professionally full time and make a decent living. If you think that after the semifinals of the team competition at the World Championships one referee approached me and apologized for his own ignorance of the technical rules... you can understand that we've got a problem! The instant replay could be a useful tool, if used in a different way than it was supposed to in Leipzig.

SCHERMAONLINE
Aside from a refereeing which was or was not on par with the level of the competition, it's clear that your defeat must be analyzed objectively as much as possible, in particular if the opponents, at least on paper, are not the strongest. What was missing, in your opinion in the final?

SANZO
I repeat. Salvatore Sanzo.

SCHERMAONLINE
This past season, Italian men's foil won practically all the most important competitions. What do you think is the secret of this incredible success?

SANZO
No secret. Just hard work. The desire to win always. The quality of our Maestri. And a bit of good luck which you must always have.

SCHERMAONLINE
What's your opinion of the [new men's foil] CT Stefano Cerioni? How did you find his work at his first world championship as the person responsible for technique? What did you appreciate in particular about how he handled his new role in the national team?

SANZO
Without a doubt very positive. And how could it be any different? Actually this was not Stefano's first world championship since as a fencer he participated at least in a dozen. This championship helped him to overcome few moments of anxiety he must have suffered during the events. In the end a positive result also for him, even if we could have done better in the individual competitions also, but we'll get new opportunities. Going back to Stefano, I really appreciated what he did after my last touch against the Chinese: he let me be on the stage and savor the moment ... thank you!

SCHERMAONLINE
When will you start training again?

SANZO
In about twenty days I will restar, I believe. But this question should be addressed to Enrico Di Ciolo [Sanzo's physical trainer and son of Sanzo's Maestro, Antonio Di Ciolo].

SCHERMAONLINE
Do you believe that Turin 2006 [the site of next year's world champioships] will present an opportunity to make fencing more popular? In any case what do you think should be done to take advantage of such an important event?

SANZO
I think that Turin will be another showcase. But the greatest help comes from TV and the press. Look, we can win all we want, but if after 10 days it's all over, we must then restart from scratch. But you know what, this doesn't matter. Fencing in the end is all joy and pure passion.

SCHERMAONLINE
Thank you Toti also in the name of all your fans.


Toti Sanzo won his second individual world championship gold in foil in Leipzig. He has a silver Olympic medal at the Olympics (individual) and a gold Olympic medal in team competition. It is impossible to enumerate all his palmares.

He recently started practicing law, is married to Frida Scarpa since 2002, a world renowned foilist, and they are both new parents of a little baby girl, Virginia.