The men's épée was one of eight fencing events on the fencing at the 1992 Summer Olympics programme. It was the twenty-first appearance of the event. The competition was held on 1 August 1992. 70 fencers from 30 nations competed. Each nation was limited to three fencers. The event was won by Éric Srecki of France, the nation's fifth victory in the event (second-most behind Italy's six). France also took bronze, with Jean-Michel Henry winning the bronze medal match. France's podium streak in the event extended to four Games. Pavel Kolobkov of the Unified Team took silver.

Background

This was the 21st 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.

Three of the eight quarterfinalists from 1988 returned: gold medalist Arnd Schmitt of West Germany (now competing for united Germany), bronze medalist Andrey Shuvalov of the Soviet Union (now competing for the Unified Team), and fourth-place finisher Sandro Cuomo of Italy. Shuvalov was the reigning (1991) World Champion. Manuel Pereira of Spain was another World Champion (1989) competing in Barcelona.

Estonia and Singapore each made their debut in the event. Some former Soviet republics competed as the Unified Team. France, Great Britain, Sweden, and the United States each appeared for the 19th time, tied for most among nations.

Competition format

The 1992 tournament used a three-phase format roughly similar to prior years in consisting of a group phase, a double-elimination phase, and a single-elimination phase, but each phase was very different from previous formats.

The first phase was a single round (vs. 3 rounds in 1988) round-robin pool play format; each fencer in a pool faced each other fencer in that pool once. There were 10 pools with 7 fencers each. The fencers' ranks within the pool were ignored; the overall winning percentage (with touch differential and then touches against used as tie-breakers) were used to rank the fencers. The top 52 advanced to the second phase, while the other fencers were eliminated.

The second phase was a modified, truncated double-elimination tournament. 12 fencers received a bye to the second round (round of 32), while the 40 fencers ranked 13–52 played in the round of 64. Fencers losing in the round of 64 were eliminated, while the remaining rounds were double elimination via repechages. The repechages (but not the main brackets) used a complicated reseeding mechanism. Ultimately, the 4 fencers remaining undefeated after the round of 8 advanced to the quarterfinals along with 4 fencers who advanced through the repechages after one loss.

The final phase was a single elimination tournament with quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final and bronze medal match.

All bouts were to 5 touches. In the second and third phases, matches were best-of-three bouts.

Schedule

All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+2)

Date Time Round Saturday, 1 August 1992 Group roundElimination roundFinal round

Results

Group round

Fencers were ranked by win percent, then touch differential, then touches against. This ranking, with adjustments to ensure that no two fencers of the same nation were in the same bracket (noted in parentheses), was used to seed the elimination round brackets.

Rank Fencer Nation Pool Rank Wins Losses Win % TF - TA Notes 1 Elmar Borrmann 6 1 6 0 1.000 30 14 16 2 Angelo Mazzoni 1 1 6 0 1.000 30 15 15 3 Mauricio Rivas 5 1 6 0 1.000 30 18 12 4 Krisztián Kulcsár 4 1 6 0 1.000 30 19 11 5 Éric Srecki 2 1 5 1 .833 30 13 17 6 Iván Kovács 9 1 5 1 .833 28 13 15 7 Jean-Michel Henry 8 1 5 1 .833 28 15 13 8 Adrian Pop 5 2 5 1 .833 29 17 12 9 (10) Robert Felisiak 4 2 5 1 .833 29 18 11 10 (9) Péter Vánky 3 1 5 1 .833 29 18 11 11 Sandro Cuomo 7 1 5 1 .833 30 21 9 12 Laurie Shong 1 2 4 2 .667 27 15 12 13 Kaido Kaaberma 9 2 4 2 .667 25 17 8 14 Olivier Lenglet 6 2 4 2 .667 25 17 8 15 Kim Jeong-Gwan 8 2 4 2 .667 26 18 8 16 Andrey Shuvalov 3 2 4 2 .667 26 18 8 17 Maurizio Randazzo 5 3 4 2 .667 26 19 7 18 Pavel Kolobkov 10 1 4 2 .667 27 20 7 19 Michael O'Brien 4 3 4 2 .667 28 21 7 20 Lee Sang-Gi 6 3 4 2 .667 25 19 6 21 Aleš Depta 1 3 4 2 .667 26 21 5 22 Roman Ječmínek 6 4 4 2 .667 28 23 5 23 Danek Nowosielski 7 2 4 2 .667 24 20 4 24 (26) Thomas Lundblad 10 2 4 2 .667 25 21 4 25 (27) Serhiy Kravchuk 2 2 4 2 .667 27 23 4 26 (24) Robert Davidson 9 3 4 2 .667 25 23 2 27 (25) Roberto Lazzarini 2 3 4 2 .667 21 23 -2 28 (31) Jiří Douba 2 4 3 3 .500 26 20 6 29 (30) Jean-Marc Chouinard 8 3 3 3 .500 26 20 6 30 (28) Arnd Schmitt 10 3 3 3 .500 25 20 5 31 (29) Fernando de la Peña 7 3 3 3 .500 26 21 5 32 Jang Tae-Seok 9 4 3 3 .500 24 21 3 33 (34) Gabriel Pantelimon 7 4 3 3 .500 26 23 3 34 (33) Maciej Ciszewski 3 3 3 3 .500 24 22 2 35 Raúl Maroto 3 4 3 3 .500 23 22 1 36 (38) Viktor Zuikov 10 4 3 3 .500 24 23 1 37 (36) André Kuhn 8 4 3 3 .500 26 25 1 38 (37) Rafael di Tella 10 5 3 3 .500 22 22 0 39 Ferenc Hegedűs 7 5 3 3 .500 22 22 0 40 Jon Normile 9 5 3 3 .500 20 22 -2 41 Juan Miguel Paz 1 4 3 3 .500 21 23 -2 42 Gavin McLean 5 4 3 3 .500 21 23 -2 43 Robert Marx 4 4 3 3 .500 19 23 -4 44 Ulf Sandegren 8 5 3 3 .500 21 25 -4 45 Mohamed Al-Hamar 3 5 3 3 .500 17 25 -8 46 Olivier Jacquet 5 5 2 4 .333 25 23 2 47 Manuel Pereira 4 5 2 4 .333 25 27 -2 48 (51) Cornel Milan 3 6 2 4 .333 24 27 -3 49 (50) Sławomir Nawrocki 8 6 2 4 .333 21 26 -5 50 (48) Wong James 10 6 2 4 .333 18 25 -7 51 (49) Norikazu Tanabe 7 6 2 4 .333 21 28 -7 52 Handry Lenzun 1 5 2 4 .333 17 25 -8 53 Steven Paul 2 5 2 4 .333 18 27 -9 54 Scott Arnold 6 5 2 4 .333 15 26 -11 55 Chris O'Loughlin 2 6 1 5 .167 19 26 -7 56 Witold Gadomski 9 6 1 5 .167 18 26 -8 57 Daniel Lang 1 6 1 5 .167 19 27 -8 58 Zahi El-Khoury 6 6 1 5 .167 20 28 -8 59 Lucas Zakaria 2 7 1 5 .167 18 27 -9 60 Rui Frazão 10 7 1 5 .167 16 26 -10 61 Luciano Finardi 3 7 1 5 .167 17 28 -11 José Bandeira 4 6 1 5 .167 17 28 -11 63 Francisco Papaiano 1 7 1 5 .167 13 27 -14 64 Michel Youssef 5 6 1 5 .167 11 26 -15 65 Tan Ronald 9 7 1 5 .167 11 29 -18 66 José Marcelo Álvarez 4 7 0 6 .000 18 30 -12 67 Dario Torrente 7 7 0 6 .000 17 30 -13 68 Enzo da Ponte 5 7 0 6 .000 14 30 -16 Trevor Strydom 6 7 0 6 .000 14 30 -16 70 Hein van Garderen 8 7 0 6 .000 11 30 -19

Elimination rounds

Main brackets

Main bracket 1

Ciszewski, Wong, Tanabe, Paz, and Normile were eliminated after the round of 64. The losers in the round of 32 faced off, with Randazzo beating Jang and Davidson beating Pop to advance to the repechage. The losers of the round of 16, Shuvalov and Lazzarini, advanced directly to the first round of the repechage. Vánky, having lost in the round of 8, went to the third round of the repechage. Borrmann won the bracket, advancing to the quarterfinals.

Repechage qualifiers 1

Main bracket 2

Sandegren, di Tella, Lenzun, Al-Hamar, and Kuhn were eliminated after the round of 64. The losers in the round of 32 faced off, with Depta beating Schmitt and Kulcsár beating Lee to advance to the repechage. The losers of the round of 16, Shong and de la Peña, advanced directly to the first round of the repechage. Srecki, having lost in the round of 8, went to the third round of the repechage. Kaaberma won the bracket, advancing to the quarterfinals.

Repechage qualifiers 2

Main bracket 3

Maroto, O'Brien, Milan, Ječmínek, and Zuikov were eliminated after the round of 64. The losers in the round of 32 faced off, with Chouinard beating Jacquet and Kravchuk beating Cuomo to advance to the repechage. The losers of the round of 16, Lenglet and Marx, advanced directly to the first round of the repechage. Rivas, having lost in the round of 8, went to the third round of the repechage. Kovács won the bracket, advancing to the quarterfinals.

Repechage qualifiers 3

Main bracket 4

Hegedűs, McLean, Kim, Pereira, and Pantelimon were eliminated after the round of 64. The losers in the round of 32 faced off, with Nowosielski beating Lundblad and Mazzoni beating Nawrocki to advance to the repechage. The losers of the round of 16, Henry and Douba, advanced directly to the first round of the repechage. Felisiak, having lost in the round of 8, went to the third round of the repechage. Kolobkov won the bracket, advancing to the quarterfinals.

Repechage qualifiers 4

Repechage rounds 1 and 2

The fencers were reseeded: the eight fencers who had lost in the round of 16 were reseeded as 1–8 while the eight fencers who had lost in the round of 32 but won the repechage qualifiers were reseeded as 9–16. Rematches of main bracket matches were avoided. For example, original seed #2 Mazzoni would have been reseeded as #9 because he was the top-seeded fencer who had advanced through the repechage qualifiers. That would have placed original #4 Kulcsár as (new) #10, setting up a rematch against (new) #7 de la Peña; Kulcsár and Mazzoni were swapped to #9 and #10, respectively. Original seeds are shown in parentheses in the brackets.

Fencer Nation From round of 16 1 7 Jean-Michel Henry 2 12 Laurie Shong 3 14 Olivier Lenglet 4 16 Andrey Shuvalov 5 25 Roberto Lazzarini 6 31 Jiří Douba 7 29 Fernando de la Peña 8 43 Robert Marx From round of 32 and qualifiers 9 4 Krisztián Kulcsár 10 2 Angelo Mazzoni 11 17 Maurizio Randazzo 12 21 Aleš Depta 13 23 Danek Nowosielski 14 27 Serhiy Kravchuk 15 24 Robert Davidson 16 30 Jean-Marc Chouinard

Repechage rounds 1 and 2 bracket 1

Repechage rounds 1 and 2 bracket 2

Repechage rounds 1 and 2 bracket 3

Repechage rounds 1 and 2 bracket 4

Repechage round 3

The fencers were reseeded again. Seeds 1–4 were given to round 8 losers, based on their original seeds (Vánky and Felisiak, who had been swapped to avoid having two German fencers in main bracket 1, were reseeded as if they had not been swapped). Seeds 5–8 were given to the winners of the second round of the repechage, based on their original seeds—except that Henry was moved from #6 to #5 to avoid a rematch with Felisiak.

Fencer Nation From round of 8 1 – 3 Mauricio Rivas 2 – 5 Éric Srecki 3 – 10 Robert Felisiak 4 – 9 Péter Vánky From repechage round 2 5 1 7 Jean-Michel Henry 6 10 2 Angelo Mazzoni 7 4 16 Andrey Shuvalov 8 14 27 Serhiy Kravchuk

Repechage round 3 bracket 1

Repechage round 3 bracket 2

Repechage round 3 bracket 3

Repechage round 3 bracket 4

Final rounds

The fencers were reseeded a final time. Seeds 1–4 were given to the round of 8 winners, based on their original seeds. Seeds 5–8 were given to the winners of the third round of the repechage, based on their original seeds.

Fencer Nation From round of 8 1 – – 1 Elmar Borrmann 2 – – 6 Iván Kovács 3 – – 13 Kaido Kaaberma 4 – – 18 Pavel Kolobkov From repechage round 3 5 6 10 2 Angelo Mazzoni 6 1 – 3 Mauricio Rivas 7 2 – 5 Éric Srecki 8 5 1 7 Jean-Michel Henry

Final classification

Fencer Nation Éric Srecki Pavel Kolobkov Jean-Michel Henry Kaido Kaaberma Elmar Borrmann Angelo Mazzoni Mauricio Rivas Iván Kovács Robert Felisiak Péter Vánky Andrey Shuvalov Serhiy Kravchuk Krisztián Kulcsár Laurie Shong Maurizio Randazzo Aleš Depta Olivier Lenglet Danek Nowosielski Robert Davidson Roberto Lazzarini Jiří Douba Jean-Marc Chouinard Fernando de la Peña Robert Marx Adrian Pop Sandro Cuomo Lee Sang-Gi Thomas Lundblad Arnd Schmitt Jang Tae-Seok Olivier Jacquet Sławomir Nawrocki Kim Jeong-Gwan Michael O'Brien Roman Ječmínek Gabriel Pantelimon Maciej Ciszewski Raúl Maroto Viktor Zuikov André Kuhn Rafael di Tella Ferenc Hegedűs Jon Normile Juan Miguel Paz Gavin McLean Ulf Sandegren Mohamed Al-Hamar Manuel Pereira Cornel Milan Wong James Norikazu Tanabe Handry Lenzun Steven Paul Scott Arnold Chris O'Loughlin Witold Gadomski Daniel Lang Zahi El-Khoury Lucas Zakaria Rui Frazão Luciano Finardi José Bandeira Francisco Papaiano Michel Youssef Tan Ronald José Marcelo Álvarez Dario Torrente Enzo da Ponte Trevor Strydom Hein van Garderen

References