I wanted to comment on it, but I was far, far too enthralled in watching the men’s foil final to take my eyes away.
Wow that was a close-fought match. I’m not really sure I agree with the call on the last point; to me it look like he took priority by beating, but then pulled back and should have lost priority, making the final attack a tie. But the commentators and judges clearly don’t agree with me, and hell, I haven’t done sport fencing for over a decade now. (This whole thing is why HEMA tends not to like priority rules!) There were a few other suspect decisions from my POV too, like his sword hitting the cable and not registering a hit.
Anyway, regardless, the Italians were incredibly bad losers. The coach absolutely yelling at the judges. It might be one thing to yell disagreement during the match, but to go right up into his face and stand over him yelling after the match is officially over goes beyond. That’s the kind of behaviour that should get you ejected from the sport: he shouldn’t be allowed to be a coach at official matches for the next 2 years or something. And the fencer himself wasn’t much better. Nothing as obvious, but he rudely shrugged off the assistant staff. Not worthy of any sort of official sanction, but it lowers him in my eyes. The better man won, clearly.
I wanted to comment on it, but I was far, far too enthralled in watching the men’s foil final to take my eyes away.
Wow that was a close-fought match. I’m not really sure I agree with the call on the last point; to me it look like he took priority by beating, but then pulled back and should have lost priority, making the final attack a tie. But the commentators and judges clearly don’t agree with me, and hell, I haven’t done sport fencing for over a decade now. (This whole thing is why HEMA tends not to like priority rules!) There were a few other suspect decisions from my POV too, like his sword hitting the cable and not registering a hit.
Anyway, regardless, the Italians were incredibly bad losers. The coach absolutely yelling at the judges. It might be one thing to yell disagreement during the match, but to go right up into his face and stand over him yelling after the match is officially over goes beyond. That’s the kind of behaviour that should get you ejected from the sport: he shouldn’t be allowed to be a coach at official matches for the next 2 years or something. And the fencer himself wasn’t much better. Nothing as obvious, but he rudely shrugged off the assistant staff. Not worthy of any sort of official sanction, but it lowers him in my eyes. The better man won, clearly.