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US men's saber fencers lose bid for bronze
By Cindy Bent Finlay // U.S. Fencing Association // August 19, 2004
ATHENS -- Staging one of the grandest upsets at the Games, the US men’s saber team beat the third-seeded Hungarians and advanced to the semifinal rounds at the Olympic Games.
By beating Hungary, the US team of Ivan Lee (Brooklyn, N.Y.), Jason Rogers (Los Angeles, Calif.) and Keeth Smart (Brooklyn, N.Y.) shocked the fencing world, beating a team for whom saber is a national heritage.
The US men dangled just a few touches behind the Hungarians until almost the middle of the match. Ivan Lee took the score from 12-15 to 20-18 for the US. The Hungarians vaulted ahead again in the next encounter, and the match remained in the Hungarian’s hands until the final encounter.
Ivan Lee outscored Zsolt Nemcsik, winner of the silver medal in the individual event only days ago, 6-5 to leave anchor Keeth Smart with a score of 38-40 going into the final match. Smart closed the match out against Domonkos Ferjancsik with brilliance, outscoring the Hungarian 7-3 for the win, 45-43.
In the semifinal bout, the US men lost the bid to advance to the gold medal bout by a single touch to France.
Once again, Smart fenced valiantly in the final encounter, outscoring France’s Damien Touya 6-5 but it was one touch too few as the score ended at 45-44 for the French team.
Neither Smart nor US coach Yury Gelman believed the referee made the proper call on the final touch. The bout was also marked by a 10-minute injury time-out as Smart's saber slashed his French opponent Gael Touya's weapon hand as the score was tied 44-44.
Finally, in the fight for the bronze, despite leading throughout the second half of a brave, athletic match against Russia, the US team lost the bronze medal by one touch.
The match started off with the US trailing by as many as 5 touches, but the US men clawed their way back touch by touch, taking the lead 25-24 as Smart faced Alexey Yakimenko.
The men scraped out one after the other, gaining first one and then two touches over the 2000 gold medal Russian team, until Lee took the strip in the penultimate match-up, against Sergei Charikov, who finished 8th in the individual competition days ago.
Lee fenced his heart out, diving, stretching, and using the entire strip to cause Charikov to fall short and then attack. The encounter ended with a 40-35 lead for the U.S.
But then Stanislav Pozdniakov took the strip against Smart, and the Russian master showed the experience and cool that has won him four Olympic golds to date. Despite a great effort from Smart, Pozdniakov brought the score up to 44-44, and finished the heart-stopping match with an attack for 45-44.
A victory would have meant the first medal for a US men's saber team in medal in 56 years. The last and only Olympic medal for any US men’s saber team was a bronze, in 1948. That was also the last team Olympic medal won by any US team.
In the gold-medal match, France defeated Italy 45-42 in a lively and contentious match.
Tomorrow, women's epee team competition takes place. The US did not qualify a team. Top seeded Germany is likely to face Hungary's second-seeded team for the final, which includes individual gold medallist Timea Nagy.
US foilists Jed Dupree (Bethlehem, Pa.), Dan Kellner (Warren, N.J.), and Jon Tiomkin (Hewlett, N.Y.) take the stage on Saturday. Seeded 7th, they will face #2 seed Germany in team men's foil competition.
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