The men's

sabre A sabre ( French: �sabʁ or saber in American English) is a type of backsword with a curved blade associated with the light cavalry of the early modern and Napoleonic periods. Originally associated with Central European cavalry such as th ...

was a competition in

fencing at the 2004 Summer Olympics Fencing at the 2004 Summer Olympics took place at the Fencing Hall at the Hellinikon Olympic Complex. Ten gold medals were awarded in individual and team events, further divided into three styles of fencing: épée, foil and sabre. Fencing i ...

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

. A total of 39 men from 21 nations competed in this event. Nations had been limited to three fencers each since 1928. Competition took place in the Fencing Hall at the

Helliniko Olympic Complex The Hellinikon Olympic Complex is a closed, partially demolished sports complex, situated at Hellinikon in the south Athens, approximately 16 kilometres from the Olympic Village. It was built on the site of the former Hellinikon International Air ...

on August 14. The event was won by Aldo Montano of Italy, the nation's first victory in the men's sabre since 1920 (and second overall). Montano accomplished what his grandfather ( Aldo Montano) and father (

Mario Aldo Montano Mario Aldo Montano (born 1 May 1948) is an Italian fencer. He won a gold and two silver medals in the team sabre at three Olympic Games. He is the son of fencer Aldo Montano who competed for Italy at the 1936 and 1948 Summer Olympics. His son ...

), both world champions in the individual event and Olympic medalists in the team competition, had not been able to: Olympic gold in the individual event.

Zsolt Nemcsik Zsolt Nemcsik (born 15 August 1977 in Budapest) is a Hungarian sabre fencer. He competed at three Olympic Games. Nemcsik's two greatest accomplishments is winning the silver medal in the 2004 Olympic Games after losing to Aldo Montano in t ...

of Hungary took silver while

Vladislav Tretiak Vladislav Aleksandrovich Tretiak, MSM ( rus, links=no, Владислав Александрович Третьяк, p=trʲɪˈtʲjak; born 25 April 1952) is a Russian former goaltender for the Soviet Union national ice hockey team. Considere ...

earned Ukraine's first medal in the event with his bronze. France's five-Games medal streak ended.

Background

This was the 25th appearance of the event, which is the only fencing event to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Four of the quarterfinalists from 2000 returned: gold medalist

Mihai Covaliu Mihai Claudiu Covaliu (born 5 November 1977 in Brașov) is a Romanian retired sabre fencer, Olympic champion in 2000 and world champion in 2005, and coach of the Romanian men's sabre team. He is also ex-president of the Romanian Fencing Federat ...

of Romania, bronze medalist

Wiradech Kothny Wiradech Kothny ( th, วีระเดช โค๊ธนี, born 10 May 1979) is a Thai former fencer. He won bronze medals in the individual and team sabre events at the 2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the G ...

of Germany, fourth-place finisher

Domonkos Ferjancsik Domonkos Ferjancsik (born 7 September 1975) is a Hungarian fencer. He competed in the individual and team sabre events at the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics. He won a silver and bronze medal at the 2003 World Fencing Championships The 2003 Wor ...

of Hungary, and fifth-place finisher (and 1996 bronze medalist) Damien Touya of France. The favorites were Russia's

Stanislav Pozdnyakov Stanislav Alekseyevich Pozdnyakov ( rus, Станислав Алексеевич Поздняков, , stənʲɪˈslaf pəzʲnʲɪˈkof; born 27 September 1973) is a Russian former fencer, a five-time Olympian (1992–2008) and five-time Olymp ...

(1996 gold medalist and 1997, 2001, and 2002 world champion) and Ukraine's Volodymyr Lukashenko (2003 world champion). The Republic of the Congo made its debut in the men's sabre. Italy made its 23rd appearance in the event, most of any nation, having missed the inaugural 1896 event and the 1904 Games.

Competition format

The 1996 tournament had vastly simplified the competition format into a single-elimination bracket, with a bronze medal match. The 2004 tournament continued to use that format. Bouts were to 15 touches. Standard

rules regarding target area, striking, and priority were used.

Schedule

All times are Greece Standard Time (

UTC+2 UTC+02:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +02:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2020-11-08T23:41:45+02:00. This time is used in: As standard time (year-round) ''Principal cities: Cairo, Pretoria, Cape ...

)

Results

Preliminary round

As there were more than 32 entrants in this event, seven first round matches were held to reduce the field to 32 fencers.

Main tournament bracket

The remaining field of 32 fencers competed in a

single-elimination tournament A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

to determine the medal winners. Semifinal losers proceeded to a

bronze medal match Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

Final classification

References

Yahoo! Sports Athens 2004 Summer Olympics Fencing Results
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fencing at the 2004 Summer Olympics - Men's sabre Men's sabre Men's events at the 2004 Summer Olympics