Olympic Preview: Men’s Individual Sabre

20 years ago, the United States won it’s last fencing medal in this very event.  Olympian Peter Westbrook won the bronze medal in Los Angeles in 1984 and has since started the Peter Westbrook Foundation in New York to help improve lives through fencing.  This year two of his pupils – Ivan Lee and Keeth Smart – are looking to end the medal drought.

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Charikov (R) makes an attack at the NYC World Cup.  Photo courtesy Serge Timacheff/FencingPhotos.com

Edit: Updated 8/12/04 at 1:40PM EDT with first round draws.

Their path to the medal rounds will be difficult, however.  In 2003, Keeth Smart became the first US fencer to claim a #1 world ranking.  Since then he has slipped and is currently ranked 25th.  Teammate Ivan Lee put together a strong season, including a bronze medal at the NYC World Cup, to move up to a #19 world ranking.

The US fencers will have to find ways to solve the games of gold medal winner Stanisalv Pozdniakov of Russia and the reigning world champion Vladimir Lukashenko of the Ukraine.

Pozdniakov is the favorite to win the gold medal, winning 3 world cup events this year and peaking at the end of the season by winning the last 2 events he has entered.  Lukashenko’s victories were towards the beginning of the season and while he is still a contender, he has cooled off.

Men’s Sabre runs deep – with fencers down to the #18 world rank putting together a win, so upsets are possible, but only Pozdniakov and Lukashenko have more than one win this season – which sets them up to be the favorites.

Competitors at the 2004 Olympic Men’s Sabre Event:

In the round of 32, all of the US fencers look to pull matches where they will be challenged, but they have had success against these fencers before.  In the round of 16, Ivan Lee looks to match up against Pozdniakov.  If he makes it through that match, the way to a medal looks clear. 

Keeth Smart has finished in the top eight in the world consistently over the past season.  Though Europeans have dominated the sport throughout history, the world is on Smart-Watch as Keeth now threatens the Russian domination of Men’s Saber.

Other potential medalists include Mihai Covaliu or Romania and Sergei Charikov of Russia.  Both of these fencers are strong competitors and have significant wins to their credit.

In the end, it will come down to speed and precision.  Sabre is the fastest weapon with the smallest tolerance for mistakes.  The fencer that shows up feeling “on” will win the day.

{mosimage} Medal Picks:
Gold: Stanislav Pozdniakov (RUS)
Silver: Zsolt Nemcsik (HUN)
Bronze: Keeth Smart (USA)

Initial Bracket for the 2004 Olympic Men’s Sabre Event: