The men's sabre was one of eight fencing events on the fencing at the 1992 Summer Olympics programme. It was the twenty-second appearance of the event. The competition was held on 2 August 1992. 44 fencers from 19 nations competed. Nations had been limited to three fencers each since 1928. The event was won by Bence Szabó of Hungary, the nation's first victory in the men's sabre since 1964 (the last of its nine-Games winning streak) and 12th overall. Marco Marin took silver while Jean-François Lamour finished with the bronze. Lamour, who had won gold in 1984 and 1988, was unable to win a third title but still became only the second man with three medals in the event (after Aladár Gerevich earned one of each color in 1936, 1948, and 1952). Marin had also finished second in 1984; he was the 12th man with multiple medals in the sabre.
Background
This was the 22nd appearance of the event, which is the only fencing event to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Six of the quarterfinalists from 1988 returned: two-time gold medalist Jean-François Lamour of France, silver medalist Janusz Olech of Poland, bronze medalist Giovanni Scalzo of Italy, and fifth-place finishers György Nébald of Hungary and Felix Becker and Jürgen Nolte of West Germany. Marco Marin, 1984 silver medalist who had not advanced through the knockout rounds in 1988, also returned. The three world championships since the previous Games had been won by Grigory Kiriyenko of the Soviet Union (1989 and 1991) and Nébald (1990).
Saudi Arabia made its debut in the men's sabre; some former Soviet republics competed as the Unified Team. Italy made its 20th appearance in the event, most of any nation, having missed the inaugural 1896 event and the 1904 Olympics.
Competition format
The 1992 tournament used a three-phase format roughly similar to prior years in consisting of a group phase, a double-elimination phase, and a single-elimination phase, but each phase was very different from previous formats.
The first phase was a single round (vs. 3 rounds in 1988) round-robin pool play format; each fencer in a pool faced each other fencer in that pool once. There were 7 pools with 6 or 7 fencers each. The fencers' ranks within the pool were ignored; the overall winning percentage (with touch differential and then touches against used as tie-breakers) were used to rank the fencers. The top 34 advanced to the second phase, while the other fencers were eliminated.
The second phase was a modified, truncated double-elimination tournament. 30 fencers received a bye to the second round (round of 32), while the 4 fencers ranked 31–34 played in the round of 64. Fencers losing in the round of 64 were eliminated, while the remaining rounds were double elimination via repechages. The repechages (but not the main brackets) used a complicated reseeding mechanism. Ultimately, the 4 fencers remaining undefeated after the round of 8 advanced to the quarterfinals along with 4 fencers who advanced through the repechages after one loss.
The final phase was a single elimination tournament with quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final and bronze medal match.
All bouts were to 5 touches. In the second and third phases, matches were best-of-three bouts.
Schedule
All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+2)
Date Time Round Sunday, 2 August 1992 Group roundElimination roundFinal round
Results
Group round
Fencers were ranked by win percent, then touch differential, then touches against. This ranking, with adjustments to ensure that no two fencers of the same nation were in the same bracket (noted in parentheses), was used to seed the elimination round brackets.
Rank Fencer Nation Pool Rank Wins Losses Win % TF - TA Notes 1 György Nébald 6 1 6 0 1.000 30 11 19 2 Giovanni Scalzo 7 1 5 1 .833 29 17 12 3 Aleksandr Shirshov 4 1 4 1 .800 24 10 14 4 Jörg Kempenich 1 1 4 1 .800 23 14 9 5 Jean-François Lamour 1 2 4 1 .800 24 16 8 6 Antonio García 4 2 4 1 .800 22 15 7 7 Felix Becker 3 1 4 1 .800 24 17 7 8 Vilmoș Szabo 2 1 4 1 .800 24 18 6 9 Ferdinando Meglio 3 2 4 1 .800 22 18 4 10 Bence Szabó 5 1 3 1 .750 19 12 7 11 Jean-Philippe Daurelle 5 2 3 1 .750 17 12 5 12 Marco Marin 6 2 4 2 .667 26 15 11 13 (15) Franck Ducheix 7 2 4 2 .667 27 20 7 14 (13) Grigory Kiriyenko 6 3 4 2 .667 24 21 3 15 (14) Zisis Babanasis 7 3 4 2 .667 23 21 2 16 Robert Kościelniakowski 1 3 3 2 .600 20 14 6 17 (19) Csaba Köves 4 3 3 2 .600 21 16 5 18 (17) Jürgen Nolte 2 2 3 2 .600 23 18 5 19 (18) Jean-Marie Banos 2 3 3 2 .600 22 20 2 20 Janusz Olech 3 3 3 2 .600 20 19 1 21 (22) Marek Gniewkowski 2 4 3 2 .600 19 22 -3 22 (21) Raúl Peinador 6 4 3 3 .500 24 22 2 23 Zheng Zhaokang 6 5 3 3 .500 23 22 1 24 Heorhiy Pohosov 7 4 3 3 .500 24 23 1 25 (26) Alexandru Chiculiţă 5 3 2 2 .500 18 18 0 26 (25) Mike Lofton 7 5 3 3 .500 21 23 -2 27 Kirk Zavieh 5 4 2 2 .500 14 17 -3 28 Yang Zhen 3 4 2 3 .400 19 19 0 29 Ian Williams 1 4 2 3 .400 20 20 0 30 (31) Gary Fletcher 4 4 2 3 .400 15 16 -1 31 (30) Daniel Grigore 1 5 2 3 .400 18 19 -1 32 Jean-Paul Banos 3 5 2 3 .400 18 20 -2 33 Steve Mormando 2 5 2 3 .400 19 21 -2 34 Bob Cottingham 4 5 2 3 .400 12 19 -7 35 Tony Plourde 7 6 2 4 .333 25 25 0 36 Dario Torrente 6 6 1 5 .167 11 29 -18 37 Ricardo Menalda 2 6 0 5 .000 17 25 -8 38 Jia Guihua 5 5 0 4 .000 11 20 -9 39 Esteban Mullins 3 6 0 5 .000 15 25 -10 40 Luís Silva 4 6 0 5 .000 7 25 -18 41 Hiroshi Hashimoto 6 7 0 6 .000 12 30 -18 42 Hein van Garderen 7 7 0 6 .000 10 30 -20 43 Sami Al-Baker 1 6 0 5 .000 3 25 -22 44 José Luis Álvarez 5 6 Did not start
Elimination rounds
Main brackets
Main bracket 1
Mormando was eliminated after the round of 64. The losers in the round of 32 faced off, with Kościelniakowski beating Nébald and Pohosov beating V. Szabo to advance to the repechage. The losers of the round of 16, J-P Banos and Lofton, advanced directly to the first round of the repechage. Nolte, having lost in the round of 8, went to the third round of the repechage. Meglio won the bracket, advancing to the quarterfinals.
Repechage qualifiers 1
Main bracket 2
The losers in the round of 32 faced off, with Yang beating Peinador and Olech beating Williams to advance to the repechage. The losers of the round of 16, Marin and Kempenich, advanced directly to the first round of the repechage. Kiriyenko, having lost in the round of 8, went to the third round of the repechage. Lamour won the bracket, advancing to the quarterfinals.
Repechage qualifiers 2
Main bracket 3
The losers in the round of 32 faced off, with Yang beating Babanasis and Daurelle beating Zavieh to advance to the repechage. The losers of the round of 16, Grigore and Gniewkowski, advanced directly to the first round of the repechage. Köves, having lost in the round of 8, went to the third round of the repechage. García won the bracket, advancing to the quarterfinals.
Repechage qualifiers 3
Main bracket 4
Fletcher was eliminated after the round of 64. The losers in the round of 32 faced off, with Zheng beating Chiculiţă and Cottingham beating J-M Banos to advance to the repechage. The losers of the round of 16, Becker and Ducheix, advanced directly to the first round of the repechage. B. Szabó, having lost in the round of 8, went to the third round of the repechage. Scalzo won the bracket, advancing to the quarterfinals.
Repechage qualifiers 4
Repechage rounds 1 and 2
The fencers were reseeded: the eight fencers who had lost in the round of 16 were reseeded as 1–8 while the eight fencers who had lost in the round of 32 but won the repechage qualifiers were reseeded as 9–16. For example, original seed #11 Daurelle was reseeded as #9 because he was the top-seeded fencer who had advanced through the repechage qualifiers. Original seeds are shown in parentheses in the brackets.
Fencer Nation From round of 16 1 3 Aleksandr Shirshov 2 4 Jörg Kempenich 3 7 Felix Becker 4 12 Marco Marin 5 15 Franck Ducheix 6 22 Marek Gniewkowski 7 25 Mike Lofton 8 32 Jean-Paul Banos From round of 32 and qualifiers 9 11 Jean-Philippe Daurelle 10 16 Robert Kościelniakowski 11 20 Janusz Olech 12 23 Zheng Zhaokang 13 24 Heorhiy Pohosov 14 28 Yang Zhen 15 30 Daniel Grigore 16 34 Bob Cottingham
Repechage rounds 1 and 2 bracket 1
Repechage rounds 1 and 2 bracket 2
Repechage rounds 1 and 2 bracket 3
Repechage rounds 1 and 2 bracket 4
Repechage round 3
The fencers were reseeded again. Seeds 1–4 were given to round 8 losers, based on their original seeds (excluding adjustments to avoid having multiple fencers from the same nation in a bracket, which affected Köves and Nolte). Seeds 5–8 were given to the winners of the second round of the repechage, based on their original seeds.
Fencer Nation From round of 8 1 – 10 Bence Szabó 2 – 13 Grigory Kiriyenko 3 – 19 Csaba Köves 4 – 17 Jürgen Nolte From repechage round 2 5 9 11 Jean-Philippe Daurelle 6 4 12 Marco Marin 7 10 16 Robert Kościelniakowski 8 11 20 Janusz Olech
Repechage round 3 bracket 1
Repechage round 3 bracket 2
Repechage round 3 bracket 3
Repechage round 3 bracket 4
Final rounds
The fencers were reseeded a final time. Seeds 1–4 were given to the round of 8 winners, based on their original seeds. Seeds 5–8 were given to the winners of the third round of the repechage, based on their original seeds.
Fencer Nation From round of 8 1 – – 2 Giovanni Scalzo 2 – – 5 Jean-François Lamour 3 – – 6 Antonio García 4 – – 9 Ferdinando Meglio From repechage round 3 5 1 – 10 Bence Szabó 6 6 4 12 Marco Marin 7 7 10 16 Robert Kościelniakowski 8 4 – 17 Jürgen Nolte
Final classification
Fencer Nation Bence Szabó Marco Marin Jean-François Lamour Giovanni Scalzo Antonio García Ferdinando Meglio Robert Kościelniakowski Jürgen Nolte Jean-Philippe Daurelle Grigory Kiriyenko Csaba Köves Janusz Olech Aleksandr Shirshov Felix Becker Zheng Zhaokang Daniel Grigore Jörg Kempenich Franck Ducheix Marek Gniewkowski Heorhiy Pohosov Mike Lofton Yang Zhen Jean-Paul Banos Bob Cottingham György Nébald Vilmoș Szabo Zisis Babanasis Jean-Marie Banos Raúl Peinador Alexandru Chiculiţă Kirk Zavieh Ian Williams Gary Fletcher Steve Mormando Tony Plourde Dario Torrente Ricardo Menalda Jia Guihua Esteban Mullins Luís Silva Hiroshi Hashimoto Hein van Garderen Sami Al-Baker José Luis Álvarez
References