Fencing at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's sabre

Men's sabre at the Games of the XVI Olympiad
Rudolf Kárpáti (1960)
Venue	St Kilda Town Hall
Dates	5 December
Competitors	35 from 17 nations
Medalists
Rudolf Kárpáti  Hungary Jerzy Pawłowski  Poland Lev Kuznetsov  Soviet Union

The men's sabre was one of seven fencing events on the fencing at the 1956 Summer Olympics programme. It was the thirteenth appearance of the event. The competition was held on 5 December 1956. 35 fencers from 17 nations competed. Nations had been limited to three fencers each since 1928. The event was won by Rudolf Kárpáti, the seventh of nine straight Games in which a Hungarian would win the event. Jerzy Pawłowski of Poland took silver and Lev Kuznetsov of the Soviet Union took bronze, the first medals in the event for each nation and the first time since 1924 that any nation other than Hungary and Italy earned a medal in the men's sabre.

Background

This was the 13th appearance of the event, which is the only fencing event to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Four of the nine finalists from 1952 returned: gold medalist (and 1948 bronze medalist) Pál Kovács of Hungary, silver medalist (and 1948 gold and 1936 bronze medalist) Aladár Gerevich of Hungary, fourth-place finisher Gastone Darè of Italy, and sixth-place finisher Jacques Lefèvre of France. The last three world champions were on the heavily favored Hungarian team: 1953 champion Kovács (who had also won in 1937), 1954 champion Rudolf Kárpáti, and 1955 champion Gerevich (also in 1935 and 1951).

Colombia, Indonesia, and Luxembourg each made their debut in the men's sabre; East and West Germany competed together as the United Team of Germany. Italy made its 11th appearance in the event, most of any nation (surpassing Denmark, which missed the men's sabre event for the first time since competing in 1908), having missed the inaugural 1896 event and the 1904 St. Louis Games.

Competition format

The competition used a pool play format, with each fencer facing the other fencers in the pool in a round robin. Bouts were to 5 touches. Barrages were used to break ties necessary for advancement (touches against were the first tie-breaker used to give ranks when the rank did not matter). However, only as much fencing was done as was necessary to determine advancement, so some bouts never occurred if the fencers advancing from the pool could be determined. The 12 fencers from the top four teams in the team sabre event received a bye in the first round.

• Round 1: There 4 pools of between 5 and 6 fencers each. The top 4 fencers in each pool advanced to the quarterfinals.
• Quarterfinals: There were 4 pools of 7 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 Australian Eastern Standard Time (UTC+10)

Date	Time	Round
Wednesday, 5 December 1956	8:00 15:00	Round 1 Quarterfinals Semifinals Final

Results

Round 1

The top 4 fencers in each pool advanced to the quarterfinals. Fencers from the four teams that advanced to the final of the men's team sabre event received byes through round 1:

• France: Claude Gamot, Jacques Lefèvre, and Jacques Roulot
• Hungary: Aladár Gerevich, Rudolf Kárpáti, and Pál Kovács
• Poland: Marian Kuszewski, Jerzy Pawłowski, and Wojciech Zabłocki
• Soviet Union: Yevhen Cherepovsky, Lev Kuznetsov, and Yakov Rylsky

Pool 1

Rank	Fencer	Nation	Wins	Losses	TF	TA	Notes
1	Luigi Narduzzi	Italy	5	0	25	8	Q
2	Teodoro Goliardi	Uruguay	3	1	19	10	Q
3	George Worth	United States	3	1	16	10	Q
4	Benito Ramos	Mexico	1	4	9	23	B
	Masayuki Sano	Japan	1	4	10	22	B
	Sandor Szoke	Australia	1	4	18	24	B

Barrage

Pos	Fencer	W	L	TF	TA	Notes		BR	MS	SS
4	Benito Ramos (MEX)	2	0	10	2	Q			5–1	5–1
5	Masayuki Sano (JPN)	1	1	6	7			1–5		5–2
6	Sandor Szoke (AUS)	0	2	3	10			1–5	2–5

Source: Official Report, p. 452.

Pool 2

Rank	Fencer	Nation	Wins	Losses	TF	TA	Notes
1	Roberto Ferrari	Italy	3	1	18	10	Q
2	Olgierd Porebski	Great Britain	3	0	15	6	Q
3	Allan Kwartler	United States	2	1	12	13	Q
4	Graham McKenzie	Australia	1	3	12	17	Q
5	Alfredo Yanguas	Colombia	0	4	8	20

Pool 3

Rank	Fencer	Nation	Wins	Losses	TF	TA	Notes
1	Gastone Darè	Italy	5	0	25	8	Q
2	Bill Hoskyns	Great Britain	3	2	18	17	Q
3	Leslie Fadgyas	Australia	3	2	21	18	Q
4	Marcel Van Der Auwera	Belgium	2	3	20	18	B
	Roland Asselin	Canada	2	3	16	18	B
6	José del Carmen	Colombia	0	5	10	25

Barrage

Pos	Fencer	W	L	TF	TA	Notes		MVDA	RA
4	Marcel Van Der Auwera (BEL)	1	0	5	3	Q			5–3
5	Roland Asselin (CAN)	0	1	3	5			3–5

Source: Official Report, p. 452.

Pool 4

Rank	Fencer	Nation	Wins	Losses	TF	TA	Notes
1	Tibor Nyilas	United States	5	0	25	13	Q
2	Günter Stratmann	United Team of Germany	3	2	22	17	Q
3	Emilio Echeverry	Colombia	3	2	21	21	Q
4	Ralph Cooperman	Great Britain	2	3	20	18	B
	Roger Theisen	Luxembourg	2	3	19	20	B
6	Siha Sukarno	Indonesia	0	5	7	25

Barrage

Pos	Fencer	W	L	TF	TA	Notes		RC	RT
4	Ralph Cooperman (GBR)	1	0	5	1	Q			5–1
5	Roger Theisen (LUX)	0	1	1	5			1–5

Source: Official Report, p. 452.

Quarterfinals

The top 4 fencers in each pool advanced to the semifinals.

Quarterfinal 1

Rank	Fencer	Nation	Wins	Losses	TF	TA	Notes
1	Roberto Ferrari	Italy	5	0	25	14	Q
2	Pál Kovács	Hungary	4	1	23	10	Q
3	Jacques Lefèvre	France	3	2	19	13	Q
4	Allan Kwartler	United States	3	2	18	17	Q
5	Yakov Rylsky	Soviet Union	2	4	18	26
6	Teodoro Goliardi	Uruguay	1	4	14	23
7	Benito Ramos	Mexico	0	5	12	25

Quarterfinal 2

Rank	Fencer	Nation	Wins	Losses	TF	TA	Notes
1	Aladár Gerevich	Hungary	5	1	29	17	Q
2	Luigi Narduzzi	Italy	4	2	28	21	Q
3	Yevhen Cherepovsky	Soviet Union	3	3	25	20	B
	Marcel Van Der Auwera	Belgium	3	3	23	22	B
	Olgierd Porebski	Great Britain	3	3	20	23	B
6	Marian Kuszewski	Poland	2	4	19	24
7	Emilio Echeverry	Colombia	1	5	10	29

Barrage

Pos	Fencer	W	L	TF	TA	Notes		YC	MVDA	OP
3	Yevhen Cherepovsky (URS)	1	1	6	6	Q			1–5	5–0
4	Marcel Van Der Auwera (BEL)	1	1	7	6			5–1		2–5
5	Olgierd Porebski (GBR)	1	1	5	7			0–5	5–2

Source: Official Report, p. 452.

Quarterfinal 3

Rank	Fencer	Nation	Wins	Losses	TF	TA	Notes
1	Rudolf Kárpáti	Hungary	5	0	25	8	Q
2	Jacques Roulot	France	4	1	24	14	Q
3	Wojciech Zabłocki	Poland	4	2	25	21	Q
4	Günter Stratmann	United Team of Germany	3	3	24	20	Q
5	Tibor Nyilas	United States	2	4	19	25
6	Bill Hoskyns	Great Britain	2	4	19	25
7	Graham McKenzie	Australia	0	6	7	30

Quarterfinal 4

Rank	Fencer	Nation	Wins	Losses	TF	TA	Notes
1	Jerzy Pawłowski	Poland	5	0	25	9	Q
2	Gastone Darè	Italy	4	1	23	16	Q
3	George Worth	United States	3	3	21	21	B
	Lev Kuznetsov	Soviet Union	3	3	23	22	B
	Ralph Cooperman	Great Britain	3	3	26	24	B
6	Claude Gamot	France	2	4	21	23
7	Leslie Fadgyas	Australia	0	6	6	30

Barrage

Pos	Fencer	W	L	TF	TA	Notes		GW	LK	RC
3	George Worth (USA)	1	1	9	6	Q			4–5	5–1
4	Lev Kuznetsov (URS)	1	0	5	4			5–4
5	Ralph Cooperman (GBR)	0	1	1	5			1–5

Source: Official Report, p. 453.

Semifinals

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

Semifinal 1

Rank	Fencer	Nation	Wins	Losses	TF	TA	Notes
1	Rudolf Kárpáti	Hungary	7	0	35	22	Q
2	Jerzy Pawłowski	Poland	5	2	32	25	Q
3	Jacques Lefèvre	France	4	3	28	24	Q
4	Luigi Narduzzi	Italy	4	3	31	27	Q
5	Yevhen Cherepovsky	Soviet Union	3	4	27	30
6	Günter Stratmann	United Team of Germany	3	4	26	31
7	Allan Kwartler	United States	2	5	24	31
8	Gastone Darè	Italy	0	7	22	35

Semifinal 2

Rank	Fencer	Nation	Wins	Losses	TF	TA	Notes
1	Pál Kovács	Hungary	6	1	30	13	Q
2	Aladár Gerevich	Hungary	5	2	30	25	Q
3	Lev Kuznetsov	Soviet Union	4	3	30	23	Q
4	Wojciech Zabłocki	Poland	4	3	28	27	Q
5	Roberto Ferrari	Italy	3	4	28	29
6	Jacques Roulot	France	2	5	19	30
7	George Worth	United States	2	5	22	32
8	Marcel Van Der Auwera	Belgium	1	6	19	32

Final

Rank	Fencer	Nation	Wins	Losses	TF	TA	Notes
	Rudolf Kárpáti	Hungary	6	1	32	19
	Jerzy Pawłowski	Poland	5	2	30	22
3	Lev Kuznetsov	Soviet Union	4	3	29	24	B
	Jacques Lefèvre	France	4	3	27	25	B
5	Aladár Gerevich	Hungary	3	4	40	31
6	Wojciech Zabłocki	Poland	2	5	17	29
7	Pál Kovács	Hungary	2	5	25	30
8	Luigi Narduzzi	Italy	2	5	21	31

Barrage

Pos	Fencer	W	L	TF	TA		LK	JL
	Lev Kuznetsov (URS)	1	1	9	6			5–2
4	Jacques Lefèvre (FRA)	1	0	5	4		2–5

Source: Official Report, p. 453.