Back from the epee master in Piacenza.

[Valerio Versace]

Ok, simply put, it was amazing. I took turns with my friends to film it all on camera and take some pictures, which I plan to upload as soon as possible.
Currently, I'm ripping the video from the camera to the PC.
Followed by Carozzo, Kolobkov got the first place. He was really incredible. Always kept the blade to his waist, ready to parry everywhere... almost never kept the arm completly extended... he scored some really incredible touches (flicks or fleches mainly.) His bout against Bossalini was possibly the best I've watched today. Also, the video came out very good because they had a black background, so the blades can be easly seen.
Man, I've never seen someone with such a fluid wrist until today. He's really... fluid and fast. He has an amazing footwork too... you can see him keeping his back foot away and ready to push: the result are impressively fast actions where he simply keeps his arm bent, beats on his opponent's blade and then scores on his arm withouth having to extend his arm... only his wrist and legs move.
I'll try to upload something as soon as I can.
Plus, I got Mangiarotti's autograph and asked him about a Polish master, Pomarnazky, who was one of his students, and gave me lessons this summer. He's really a cool old guy... noble, calm, collected... and he speaks like he was... I don't know, twenty.
It was really an enjoyable day.

[Seanathan]

Sounds very cool, I'd really like to see the videos you took. update us!!

[Valerio Versace]

Some teaser pics I just ripped:
To the left, Carozzo. To the right, Kolobkov, during the final match.

Edoardo Mangiarotti.

The group of the athletes with Mangiarotti. From left to right, Pavel Kolobkov, Attila Fekete, Christoph Marik, Edoardo Mangiarotti, Alessandro Bossalini, Alfredo Rota and Stefano Carozzo.


I don't have much time now, so I'm uploading low-quality versions of these pics. More to come later.

[SJB]

Any photos/footage of Fekete?

I love how he fences.

[JEC]

Some teaser pics I just ripped:
To the left, Carozzo. To the right, Kolobkov, during the final match.

Edoardo Mangiarotti.

The group of the athletes with Mangiarotti. From left to right, Pavel Kolobkov, Attila Fekete, Christoph Marik, Edoardo Mangiarotti, Alessandro Bossalini, Alfredo Rota and Stefano Carozzo.


I don't have much time now, so I'm uploading low-quality versions of these pics. More to come later.

If you send me a copy of the DV tape, I can edit it (see below what I done before). Email me if interested: texasepilepsy@earthlink.net

[gladius]

I don't want to take anything from the in person report by Valerio of this event, but this is directly from the FIS website for those interested in how this friendly exhibition tournament was conducted.

From the FIS website

http://www.federscherma.it/news.asp?31882

INTERNATIONAL MASTERS IN PIACENZA. IN THE FINAL THE GREAT PAVEL KOLOKOV BEATS STEFANO CAROZZO

12/12/2005, Piacenza - Great celebration yesterday in Piacenza for the 50th anniversary of Circolo Pettorelli. And great celebration also for Italian and international fencing with the exhibition tournament on the strips of Palazzetto dello Sport in Piacenza of some of the strongest representatives of world epee: the Russian Pavel Kolobkov (4 times world champion, the last victory in Leipzig two months ago), the Austrian Cristoph Marik (2004 European champion and winner of the World Cup in 2002 and 2003), the Hungarian Attila Fekete (two times team world champion), and three Italians, Stefano Carozzo (the current Italian champion and winner of the 2005 World Cup), Alfredo Rota (2000 team Olympic gold and 2004 winner of the World Cup, and Alessandro Bossalini (ranked 7th internationally, 2003 European team bronze, 2001 University Games silver, who had the advantage of the home turf since he was born in Piacenza and grew up fencing-wise at the Pettorelli club.

The format chosen for this tournament was a special one to favor the entertainment factor, with 6 fencers divided in two rounds of three, with single bouts of 4 minutes for the best of 10 touches. The top two of each round to fight the final to 15 in three periods of three minutes each.

In the first pool were Bossalini, Kolobkov, and Fekete; in the second pool Rota Carozzo, and Marik. Even though this was a friendly competition, all bouts were actively fought because the champions wanted to excel in front of the large crowd present.

Round A went to Kolobkov who defeated Bossalini by one touch (10-9), as he did in the world championships in Leipzig (there he finished 15-14), and he did even better against Fekete with a more comfortable 10-5. In the bout Bossalini - Fekete, the Hungarian won by one touch (10-9).

Round B saw a victory each for the 3 fencers. Rota beat Marik 10-5; Carozzo beat Rota 10-6, and Marik beat Carozzo 6-5. Because of a touches differential Carozzo ended up in the final against Kolobkov which the Russian won 15-8.
.......


As Valerio stated before, it must have been quite a show!

[Valerio Versace]

Thanks for the update, I didn't notice the report on federscherma.it.
By the way, I'm currently working on the video, which should be available for the next week-end. For now, I'm uploading another pic:
http://utenti.lycos.it/satak/hpbimg/...kolobkov02.jpg

[RITFencing]

Beautiful photos; you're good with that camera.

Can't wait for the video.

[Valerio Versace]

Most photos were taken by a friend of mine, who was in charge of the photocamera: I was busy filming.
By the way... yes, he's very good: his father picked it up as an hobby and thaught him how to take pictures. A lot of people say that he should do that as a pro.
Anyway, these are some more spectacular ones I just uploaded:
http://utenti.lycos.it/satak/hpbimg/...kolobkov02.jpg
http://utenti.lycos.it/satak/hpbimg/...ovfekete01.jpg
http://utenti.lycos.it/satak/hpbimg/...kolobkov03.jpg
http://utenti.lycos.it/satak/hpbimg/...kolobkov04.jpg

[Valerio Versace]

The full video is up on Emule for sharing.
The file name is:
fencing international men epee master piacenza.wmv

The file name is long so that random people looking for fencing stuff in general can find it easly.
Everyone interested should download and share it for everyone to watch: it's really worth it.

[I live to FENCE]

Can you post a direct link or zip it up and post it here? It's difficult for me to download stuff through p2p. Thanks.

[Valerio Versace]

Do you know a provider that grants more than 600 megabytes of free web space for me to upload the file?
If you do, I'll upload it and post a direct download link.

[glowstix]

awesome awesome awesome pics!!

[dueller]

The full video is up on Emule for sharing.
The file name is:
fencing international men epee master piacenza.wmv

The file name is long so that random people looking for fencing stuff in general can find it easly.
Everyone interested should download and share it for everyone to watch: it's really worth it.

Valerio, hi I am new here. I typed fencing international men epee master piacenza.wmv in emule search tab and did not find the video. I'm wondering maybe those who have it may not be online? I have some videos of the other epee matches I can share with you.

[stealingophelia]

well at least someone has a lot of color on their jacket ahah
how does one get their knickers so dirty though, it looks like he urinated on himself

[jjefferies]

The full video is up on Emule for sharing.
The file name is:
fencing international men epee master piacenza.wmv

The file name is long so that random people looking for fencing stuff in general can find it easly.
Everyone interested should download and share it for everyone to watch: it's really worth it.

Love to see it. But what is emule? I searched and found Emule as a free download site but a search for "fencing international men epee master piacenza.wmv" failed.

J.

[KD5MDK]

Do you know a provider that grants more than 600 megabytes of free web space for me to upload the file?
If you do, I'll upload it and post a direct download link.

www.yousendit.com (up to 1GB). Limited number of downloads, but nothing against reuploading again.