The men's foil was one of eight fencing events on the fencing at the 1988 Summer Olympics programme. It was the twentieth appearance of the event. The competition was held from 20 to 21 September 1988. 68 fencers from 29 nations competed. Nations had been limited to three fencers each since 1928. The event was won by Stefano Cerioni of Italy, the nation's second consecutive and seventh overall (matching France for most all-time) victory in the men's foil. Cerioni was the ninth man to win multiple medals in the event. Udo Wagner earned East Germany's first medal in the event with his silver, while Aleksandr Romankov's bronze put the Soviet Union back on the podium after a one-Games absence caused by the boycott. Romankov also became the third man to win three medals in the event.
Background
This was the 20th 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). Seven of the eight quarter-finalists from 1984 returned: gold medalist Mauro Numa of Italy, silver medalist Matthias Behr of West Germany, bronze medalist Stefano Cerioni of Italy, and quarterfinal losers Thierry Soumagne of Belgium, Andrea Borella of Italy, Matthias Gey of West Germany, and Philippe Omnès of France. Also returning was Alexandr Romankov of the Soviet Union, who had won silver in 1976 and bronze in 1980 but had not competed in 1984 due to the boycott. Numa, Borella, and Gey had won the three world championships since the 1984 Games; Romankov had won 6 world championships but none since 1983.
Aruba and Indonesia each made their debut in the men's foil. France and the United States each made their 18th appearance, tied for most of any nation; France had missed only the 1904 (with fencers not traveling to St. Louis) and the 1912 (boycotted due to a dispute over rules) foil competitions, while the United States had missed the inaugural 1896 competition and boycotted the 1980 Games altogether.
Competition format
The 1988 tournament used a three-phase format very similar to that of 1984, though the second phase (double elimination) round expanded from 16 to 32 fencers.
The first phase was a multi-round round-robin pool play format; each fencer in a pool faced each other fencer in that pool once. There were three pool rounds: The first round had 12 pools of 5 or 6 fencers each, with the top 4 in each pool advancing. The second round had 8 pools of 6 fencers each, with the top 5 in each pool advancing. The third round had 8 pools of 5 fencers each, with the top 4 in each pool advancing.
The second phase was a truncated double-elimination tournament. Four fencers advanced to the final round through the winners brackets and four more advanced via the repechage.
The final phase was a single elimination tournament with a bronze medal match.
Bouts in the round-robin pools were to 5 touches; bouts in the double-elimination and final rounds were to 10 touches.
Schedule
All times are Korea Standard Time adjusted for daylight savings (UTC+10)
Date Time Round Tuesday, 20 September 1988 8:3013:0015:00 Round 1Round 2Round 3 Wednesday, 21 September 1988 14:00 Double elimination roundQuarterfinalsSemifinalsBronze medal matchFinal
Results
Round 1
Round 1 Pool A
Round 1 Pool B
Round 1 Pool C
Round 1 Pool D
Round 1 Pool E
Round 1 Pool F
Round 1 Pool G
Round 1 Pool H
Round 1 Pool I
Round 1 Pool J
Round 1 Pool K
Round 1 Pool L
Round 2
Round 2 Pool A
Round 2 Pool A
Round 2 Pool B
Round 2 Pool C
Round 2 Pool D
Round 2 Pool E
Round 2 Pool F
Round 2 Pool G
Round 2 Pool H
Round 3
Round 3 Pool A
Round 3 Pool B
Round 3 Pool C
Round 3 Pool D
Round 3 Pool E
Round 3 Pool F
Round 3 Pool G
Round 3 Pool H
Double elimination rounds
Winners brackets
Winners group 1
Winners group 2
Winners group 3
Winners group 4
Repechages
Repechage 1
Repechage 2
Repechage 3
Repechage 4
Final round
Final classification
Fencer Nation Stefano Cerioni Udo Wagner Aleksandr Romankov Ulrich Schreck Zsolt Érsek Mauro Numa Jens Howe Matthias Gey Philippe Omnès Ilgar Mamedov Aris Enkelmann Peter Lewison Laurent Bel Róbert Gátai Bogusław Zych Boris Koretsky Koji Emura Benny Wendt Matthias Behr Liu Yunhong Luc Rocheleau Thierry Soumagne Pierre Harper Kim Seung-Pyo Zhang Zhicheng Bill Gosbee Marian Sypniewski Pál Szekeres Leszek Bandach Donnie McKenzie Benoît Giasson Andrés García Ola Kajbjer Jesús Esperanza Abdel Monem El-Husseini Mike Marx Lao Shaopei Eric Strand Sergio Turiace Patrick Groc Andrea Borella Go Nak-Chun Dave Littell Robert Davidson Ahmed Mohamed Kenichi Umezawa Yoshihiko Kanatsu Stephen Angers Kim Yong-Guk Wang San-Tsai Antônio Machado Michel Youssef Choy Kam Shing Roberto Lazzarini Anatol Richter José Bandeira Lee Chung Man Austin Thomas Douglas Fonseca Thomas Åkerberg Saqer Al-Surayei Khaled Al-Awadhi Yan Wing-Shean Salman Mohamed Weng Tak Fung Pedro Cornet Alkindi Zahi El-Khoury
References