The men's

épée The (, ; ), also rendered as epee in English, is the largest and heaviest of the three weapons used in the sport of fencing. The modern derives from the 19th-century , a weapon which itself derives from the French small sword. This contains a ...

was one of seven

fencing Fencing is a combat sport that features sword fighting. It consists of three primary disciplines: Foil (fencing), foil, épée, and Sabre (fencing), sabre (also spelled ''saber''), each with its own blade and set of rules. Most competitive fe ...

events on the

fencing at the 1948 Summer Olympics At the 1948 Summer Olympics, seven fencing events were contested, six for men and one for women. Medal summary Men's events Women's events Medal table Participating nations A total of 294 fencers (255 men and 39 women) from 30 nations comp ...

programme. It was the tenth appearance of the event. The competition was held from 7 August 1948 to 9 August 1948. 66 fencers from 25 nations competed. The event was won by

Luigi Cantone Luigi Cantone (July 21, 1917 – November 6, 1997) was an Italian fencer and Olympic champion in épée competition. He received a gold medal in ''épée individual'' at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London London is the Capital ...

of Italy, the nation's third consecutive victory in the men's épée (matching France for most all-time). Italy also earned its third consecutive ''bronze'' medal in the event, with

Edoardo Mangiarotti Edoardo Mangiarotti (; 7 April 1919 – 25 May 2012) was an Italian fencer. He won a total of 39 Olympic titles and World championships, more than any other fencer in the history of the sport. His Olympic medals include one individual ...

's third-place finish. Between the two Italians was Oswald Zappelli of Switzerland, taking the silver medal.

Background

This was the 10th appearance of the event, which was not held at the first Games in 1896 (with only foil and sabre events held) but has been held at every Summer Olympics since 1900. One of the 10 finalists from the pre-war 1936 Games returned: fifth-place finisher

Charles Debeur Charles Debeur (24 March 1906 – 1981) was a Belgian fencer who competed at the 1928, 1936 and 1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and officially branded as London 1948, were an int ...

of Belgium. The reigning (1947) World Champion,

Édouard Artigas Édouard Artigas (26 February 1906 – 25 February 2001) was a French fencer. He won a gold medal in the team épée event at the 1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and officially br ...

of France, competed in the team event but not the individual event. Colombia and Luxembourg each made their debut in the event. Belgium and the United States each appeared for the ninth time, tied for most among nations.

Competition format

The competition format was pool play round-robin, with bouts to three touches. Not all bouts were played in some pools if not necessary to determine advancement. Ties were broken through fence-off bouts ("barrages") in early rounds if necessary for determining advancement, but by touches received in final rounds (and for non-advancement-necessary placing in earlier rounds).Official Report, p. 367. A barrage was held for the silver and bronze medals when the two fencers finished event on record, touches received, and touches scored. The 1948 competition introduced byes for team event finalists. * Round 1: 8 pools of between 5 and 8 fencers each. The top 4 fencers in each pool advanced to the quarterfinals. * Quarterfinals: 6 pools between 6 and 7 fencers each. The top 3 fencers in each pool advanced to the semifinals. * Semifinals: 2 pools of 9 fencers each. The top 5 fencers in each pool advanced to the final. * Final: 1 pool of 10 fencers.

Schedule

All times are

British Summer Time During British Summer Time (BST), civil time in the United Kingdom is advanced one hour forward of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), in effect changing the time zone from UTC+00:00 to UTC+01:00, so that mornings have one hour less daylight, and eve ...

(

UTC+1 +01:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +01:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2019-02-07T23:28:34+01:00. This time is used in: *Central European Time * West Africa Time * Western European Summer Time **Brit ...

)

Results

Round 1

The top 4 finishers in each pool advanced to round 2. Fencers from the four teams that advanced to the final of the men's team épée event received byes through round 1: * Denmark:

Mogens Lüchow Mogens Lüchow (13 May 1918 – 20 March 1989) was a Danish fencer. He competed in the individual and team épée events at the 1948 and 1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics (, ), officially known as the Games of the XV Olymp ...

and Ib Nielsen * France: Marcel Desprets, Henri Guérin, and Henri Lepage * Italy: Carlo Agostoni,

, and

* Sweden:

Frank Cervell Colonel Frank Rutger Cervell (22 February 1907 – 3 September 1970) was an officer in the Swedish Air Force and a fencer. He won bronze medals in the team épée event at the 1948 Summer Olympics and 1937 World Championships, as well as a ...

, Carl Forssell, and

Bengt Ljungquist Bengt Helge Ljungquist (20 September 1912 – 15 July 1979) was a Swedish fencer, equestrian and military officer. Early life Ljungquist was born on 20 September 1912 in Umeå, Sweden, the son of Major Helge Ljungquist and his wife Edith Palan ...

Pool 1

Pool 2

Biancalana defeated Mørch and Wolff in a three-way barrage for fourth place.

Pool 3

Simonetti defeated Meraz and Pouliot in a three-way barrage for fourth place.

Pool 4

Radoux defeated de Barros and Nawrocki in a three-way barrage for fourth place.

Pool 5

Pool 6

Pool 7

Younes defeated Iturri in a barrage for fourth place.

Pool 8

Younes defeated Iturri in a barrage for fourth place.

Quarterfinals

The top 3 finishers in each pool advanced to the semifinals.Official Report, p. 368.

Quarterfinal 1

Camargo defeated de Capriles and Horn in a three-way barrage for third place.

Quarterfinal 2

Biancalana and Saucedo defeated de Beaumont in a three-way barrage for second and third place.

Quarterfinal 3

Quarterfinal 4

Quarterfinal 5

Lepage defeated Anen and Nielsen in a three-way barrage for third place.

Quarterfinal 6

Semifinals

The top 5 finishers in each pool advanced to the final.

Semifinal 1

Agostoni defeated Ljungquist in a barrage for fifth place.

Semifinal 2

Final

Zappelli and Mangiarotti finished tied on win–loss record, touches received, and touches scored. Rather than use the head-to-head results from the round-robin (Zappelli had defeated Mangiarotti 3–0 in their bout), they faced each other in a barrage for silver and bronze medals. Zappelli won, 3–0 again.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fencing at the 1948 Summer Olympics - Men's epee Epee men Men's events at the 1948 Summer Olympics