Fencing at the 1920 Summer Olympics – Men's sabre

The men's sabre was a fencing event held as part of the Fencing at the 1920 Summer Olympics programme in Antwerp, Belgium. It was the sixth appearance of the event. A total of 43 fencers from 9 nations competed in the event, which was held on August 25 and August 26, 1920. Nations were limited to eight fencers each. The event was won by Nedo Nadi of Italy, one of his five gold medals in 1920. His brother Aldo Nadi took silver. Adrianus de Jong of the Netherlands finished third. They were the first medals in the individual men's sabre for both countries. This was the only time from 1908 to 1964 that Hungary did not win the men's sabre—with no Hungarian fencers competing after the nation was disinvited after World War I.

Background

This was the sixth appearance of the event, which is the only fencing event to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Seven of the eight finalists from 1912 had been Hungarian; with Hungary not invited to the 1920 Games in the aftermath of World War I, none of those seven could return. The other finalist, however, was Nedo Nadi of Italy—the heavy favorite with no Hungarians competing (and with 1919 Inter-Allied champion Vincent Gillens of Belgium not attending either).

Czechoslovakia made its debut in the men's sabre. Italy and Denmark each made their fourth appearance in the event, tying Austria (also not invited to the Games following the war) for most of any nation.

Competition format

The event used a three-round format. In each round, the fencers were divided into pools to play a round-robin within the pool. Bouts were to three touches (an unpopular change from the more typical five). Standard sabre rules were used, including that the target area was the now-standard target above the waist (in contrast to the larger target in 1912 and the whole body in 1896, 1900, and 1908). Quarterfinals: There were 5 pools of between 7 and 9 fencers each. The top 4 fencers in each quarterfinal advanced to the semifinals, except that the top 5 in quarterfinal C advanced (with two men tied for fourth, the tie was not broken and both advanced). Semifinals: There were 3 pools of 7 fencers each. The top 4 fencers in each semifinal advanced to the final. Final: The final pool had 12 fencers.

Schedule

Date Time Round Wednesday, 25 August 1920 9:0014:00 QuarterfinalsSemifinals Thursday, 26 August 1920 Final

Results

Quarterfinals

Quarterfinal A

Rank Fencer Nation Wins Losses Notes 1 Oreste Puliti 6 1 2 Federico Cesarano 5 2 3 Adrianus de Jong 5 2 4 Aage Berntsen 5 2 5 Marc Perrodon 3 4 6 Edwin Fullinwider 2 5 7 Alexandre Simonson 1 6 Eric Startin 1 6

Quarterfinal B

Rank Fencer Nation Wins Losses Notes 1 Aldo Nadi 6 1 2 Robin Dalglish 5 2 3 Félix Goblet 4 3 4 Henri Wijnoldij-Daniëls 4 3 5 Wouter Brouwer 3 4 Ronald Campbell 3 4 7 Viliam Tvrský 2 5 8 John Dimond 1 6 — Georges Trombert

Quarterfinal C

Rank Fencer Nation Wins Losses Notes 1 Nedo Nadi 5 1 2 Robert Feyerick 3 3 3 Cecil Kershaw 3 3 4 Baldo Baldi 3 3 Josef Javůrek 3 3 6 Henri de Saint-Germain 2 4 Clariborne Walker 2 4

Quarterfinal D

Rank Fencer Nation Wins Losses Notes 1 Léon Tom 6 1 2 Francesco Gargano 5 2 3 Giulio Rusconi 4 3 4 Joseph Parker 4 3 5 Evangelos Skotidas 3 4 Zdeněk Vávra 3 4 7 Félix Vigeveno 2 5 8 Arthur Lyon 1 6 — Jean Margraff Alfred Martin

Quarterfinal E

Rank Fencer Nation Wins Losses Notes 1 Jan van der Wiel 6 2 2 Robert Hennet 5 3 3 Giorgio Santelli 5 3 4 Herbert Huntington 5 3 5 Jean Servent 4 4 Vasilios Zarkadis 4 4 7 Roscoe Bowman 3 5 Jaroslav Šourek 3 5 9 Frederick Cunningham 1 7

Semifinals

Semifinal A

Rank Fencer Nation Wins Losses Notes 1 Henri Wijnoldij-Daniëls 4 2 2 Léon Tom 4 2 3 Francesco Gargano 3 3 4 Aldo Nadi 3 3 5 Josef Javůrek 3 3 6 Cecil Kershaw 2 4 Giorgio Santelli 2 4

Semifinal B

Rank Fencer Nation Wins Losses Notes 1 Nedo Nadi 6 0 2 Baldo Baldi 5 1 3 Jan van der Wiel 3 3 4 Robin Dalglish 3 3 5 Robert Feyerick 3 3 6 Joseph Parker 1 5 7 Félix Goblet 0 6

Semifinal C

Rank Fencer Nation Wins Losses Notes 1 Federico Cesarano 5 1 2 Adrianus de Jong 5 1 3 Oreste Puliti 4 2 4 Robert Hennet 3 3 5 Giulio Rusconi 3 3 6 Herbert Huntington 1 5 7 Aage Berntsen 0 6

Final

Rank Fencer Nation Wins Losses Nedo Nadi 11 0 Aldo Nadi 9 2 Adrianus de Jong 6 5 4 Oreste Puliti 6 5 5 Jan van der Wiel 6 5 6 Léon Tom 5 6 7 Robert Hennet 5 6 8 Robin Dalglish 5 6 9 Henri Wijnoldij-Daniëls 4 7 10 Federico Cesarano 3 8 11 Francesco Gargano 3 8 12 Baldo Baldi 3 8

References