Monday Wrap-Up (10/10/2005)

(See the Monday Preview from earlier today.)

Photos by Alex Ripa

Men's Sabre

Team USA suffered heavily in the early elimination rounds, despite some very promising seeding pool results. Only Ivan Lee made it into the 32, where he was laid flat by a bell-guard to the face from Boris Sanson (France). Lee eventually fought the score back to 13-13, but lost a close call with the director and then couldn't escape a final attack. Mihai Covaliu (Romania) eventually cleaned up that tableau, fighting through Dmytro Boiko (Ukraine) Boris Sanson (France), and Dmitri Lapkes (Belorussia).

37-seed Oleg Shturbabin of the Ukraine finished a surprising sweep by defeating 4th seed (and 2004 Olympic Silver Medalist) Zsolt Nemcsik (Hungary) in a hotly contested bout.

Olympic Gold Medalist, Aldo Montano (Italy) fought tooth-and-nail against Luigi Tarantino (Italy), narrowly promoting at 15-14 -- but there he was to meet the eternal Stanislaw Pozdniakov, who defeated him with nearly double-digits.

Alexy Yakimenko (Russia), 2nd seed and world #1, processed his opponents with scores like 15-6, 15-4, and 15-10, sliding easily into the top four.

In the semi-final, Covaliu took Shturbabin to task, scoring long runs of points with incredibly precise distance and stop-action footwork. Though seemingly out-classed, Shturbabin was able to out-finesse Covaliu several times, with a strong chase to the end of the stirp, or a counter-time parry riposte (followed by yet another counter-time parry riposte) -- to tie the bout 12-12. Covaliu is able to find tempo where Shturbabin can't, and narrowly out-accelerates his opponent on near-simultaneous actions to win the critical last few touches.

In his bout, Yakimenko started strong with a fast touch, but Pozdniakov answered quickly in the next action with a parry riposte, and never slowed down. Pozdniakov has little problem dominating the bout -- on the attack, in tempo, with his ripostes. When Pozdniakov reaches 8 touches, to close the first period, Yakimenko has 2 points. When Yakimenko tried to rally, Pozdniakov broke the rally and finished many points ahead.

The final — The final bout between Covaliu and Pozdniakov was a tremendous display of technique and gamesmanship. The Romanian's decisive, tight, and controlled actions, versus Pozdniakov's inability to make errors -- the question was which fencer would crack first.

The bout wavered back and forth, neither fencer earning more than two touches in a row -- though Pozdniakov earned two touches more often. The first period ended with Pozdniakov ahead 8-5. Returning from the break, in between Pozdniakov's touches, Covaliu earned one point, then two, then four. Pozdniakov cracked first, chasing Covaliu the length of the strip during an attack, and then missing the final touch. This happened not once, but twice -- the final time at 14-12 Covaliu -- when Pozdniakov missed a head-cut, leaving the Romanian with the only light.

Women's Epee

France's Laura Flessel Colovic, a fixture since the 1996 Olympics, returned to day to dominate a tableau that included Li Zhang (China), Hajnalka Toth (Hungary), and Magdalena Graboska (Poland).

US fencer Kelley Hurley took 5th-seed Maureen Nisima (France) to 5-5 by the third period, but two quick touches from Nisima broke the deadlock, and Hurley couldn't make up the difference in time. The immensely powerful Nisima, however, fell before 37-seed Maarika Vosu (Estonia), who went on to defeat 13th seed Ana Branza (Romania) to win her tableau.

Danuta Dmowska, Poland's 14th seed, defeated #6 Cristiana Cascioli (Italy) to enter the top four in her tableau.

Sherraine Mackay (Canada) started the day slow, spending the first half of the bout down against 58-seed Se Jung Jang (58th seed). She picked up speed against Ukraine's Shemyakina, 10th-seed Britta Heidemann from Germany, and Sonja Tol from the Netherlands.

In the finals, Flessel-Colovic (France) wowed Vosu (Estonia) with a reachy toe-touch. However, she couldn't keep delivering her fleches and long lunges against the very tip-oriented Vosu. In a high-scoring third period, Vosu finally moved ahead, prompting Flessel-Colovic to hurry her attacks. She succeeded in little more than doubling out and giving Vosu several chances to even the score, and then finally finish the bout in overtime.

Dmowska (Poland) fenced a very relaxed and open bout against Mackay, accelerating suddenly with blade-controlling beat attacks and parry ripostes. Before she knew it Mackay was down 4-0, then 9-2. By the middle of the second period, Mackay finally started outscoring her opponent, but by too narrow a margin to make a difference.

The final bout between Vosu and Dmowska began quietly, mainly footwork interrupted with a few touches. Dmowska's domineering attack was answered by the more defensive Vosu's everpresent tip. During an attack, Dmowska had an equal chance of hitting, or being hit, and the score veered wildly between the frencers until the sudden-death overtime. Dmowska, who hadn't been earning many touches at that phase of the bout, won the last one, and the first-place medal.

Tomorrow...

Tuesday is the Men's Foil and Women's Sabre competition.