The men's foil 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 3 August 1948 to 4 August 1948. 63 fencers from 25 nations competed. The event was won by

Jehan Buhan Jehan Buhan (5 April 1912 – 14 September 1999) was a French fencer and Olympic champion in foil competition. He received a gold medal in ''foil individual'' at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London London is the Capital city, capita ...

of France, the nation's first victory in the men's foil since 1928 and fifth overall (passing Italy for most all-time). His countryman

Christian d'Oriola Christian d'Oriola (3 October 1928 – 29 October 2007) was a French fencer. He was a cousin of the Olympic equestrian Pierre Jonquères d'Oriola. D'Oriola took part in the 1948, 1952, 1956, and 1960 Olympics, serving as the Olympic flag bea ...

took silver, while

Lajos Maszlay Lajos Maszlay (2 October 1903 – 1 December 1979) was a Hungarian fencer. He won a bronze medal at the 1948 Summer Olympics and another at the 1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics (, ), officially known as the Games of the XV ...

earned Hungary's first medal in the men's individual foil with his bronze.

Background

This was the 10th appearance of the event, which has been held at every Summer Olympics except 1908 (when there was a foil display only rather than a medal event). None of the pre-

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

1936 finalists returned. The favorite was young

, the 1947 world champion. Joining him on the French team was 1947 épée world champion

, who would have been favored in 1940 were it not for the war. Colombia, Ireland, Luxembourg, and Turkey each made their debut in the men's foil. The United States made its ninth appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the inaugural 1896 competition.

Competition format

The event used a four-round format. In each round, the fencers were divided into pools to play a round-robin within the pool. Bouts were to five 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). Standard

foil Foil may refer to: Materials * Foil (metal), a quite thin sheet of metal, usually manufactured with a rolling mill machine * Metal leaf, a very thin sheet of decorative metal * Aluminium foil, a type of wrapping for food * Tin foil, metal foil ma ...

rules were used, including that touches had to be made with the tip of the foil, the target area was limited to the torso, and priority determined the winner of double touches.Official Report, p. 357. * Round 1: There were 8 pools of 7–9 fencers each. The top 4 fencers in each pool advanced to the quarterfinals. * Quarterfinals: There were 4 pools of 8 fencers each. The top 4 fencers in each quarterfinal advanced to the semifinals. * Semifinals: There were 2 pools of 8 fencers each. The top 4 fencers in each semifinal advanced to the final. * Final: The final pool had 8 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.

Pool 1

Hörning defeated Gretsch in a barrage for fourth place.

Pool 2

Younes and Rydström defeated Barrientos in a three-way barrage for third and fourth place.

Pool 3

Palócz defeated Albrechtsen in a barrage for fourth place.

Pool 4

Pool 5

Pool 6

Pool 7

Abdel Hafeez defeated Lamesch in a barrage for fourth place.

Pool 8

Schlaepfer defeated Hátszeghy in a barrage for fourth place.

Quarterfinals

The top 4 finishers in each pool advanced to the semifinals.Official Report, p.358.

Quarterfinal 1

Quarterfinal 2

Quarterfinal 3

Quarterfinal 4

Semifinals

The top 4 finishers in each pool advanced to the final.

Semifinal 1

Semifinal 2

Di Rosa defeated Cetrulo in a barrage for fourth place.

Final

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fencing at the 1948 Summer Olympics - Men's foil Foil men Men's events at the 1948 Summer Olympics