1908 Summer Olympics / Fencing

Fencing at the IV Olympic Games
information
venue	London
Competition venue	Franco-British Exhibition
Nations	14th
Athletes	131 (131 )
date	17.-24. July 1908
decisions	4th
← St. Louis 1904 Stockholm 1912 →

Four fencing competitions were held at the IV Olympic Games in London in 1908 . The venue was a tent on the Franco-British Exhibition site near the White City Stadium , which had been set up to protect against bad weather.

In contrast to the earlier events, there were only competitions with epee and saber , but not with foil . In the opinion of the organizers, the rules of this discipline had developed so differently in the individual countries that international competitions were not possible. A decision based solely on the number of hits would have been degrading the sport. Instead, a demonstration competition was held in the Prince's Galleries on Piccadilly without a rating.

Balance sheet

Medal table

space	country				total
1	France	2	1	1	4th
2	Hungary	2	1	-	3
3	Italy	-	1	-	1
	Great Britain	-	1	-	1
5	Bohemia	-	-	2	2
6th	Belgium	-	-	1	1

Medalist

competitor	gold	silver	bronze
Epee single	Gaston Alibert	Alexandre Lippmann	Eugène Olivier
Epee team	Gaston Alibert , Herman Georges Berger , Charles Collignon , Bernard Gravier , Alexandre Lippmann , Eugène Olivier , Jean Stern	Edgar Amphlett , Leaf Daniell , Cecil Haig , Martin Holt , Robert Montgomerie , Edgar Seligman	Paul Anspach , Désiré Beaurain , Fernand Bosmans , Fernand de Montigny , Ferdinand Feyerick , François Rom , Victor Willems
Saber single	Jenő fox	Béla Zulawszky	Vilém Goppold von Lobsdorf
Saber crew	Dezső Földes , Jenő Fuchs , Oszkár Gerde , Péter Tóth , Lajos Werkner	Marcello Bertinetti , Sante Ceccherini , Riccardo Nowak , Abelardo Olivier , Alessandro Pirzio Biroli	Otakar Lada , Vlastimil Lada-Sázavský , Vilém Goppold von Lobsdorf , Jaroslav Tuček , Bedřich Schejbal

Results

Epee single

space	country	athlete	Victories
1	FRA	Gaston Alibert	5
2	FRA	Alexandre Lippmann	4 (+2)
3	FRA	Eugène Olivier	4 (+1)
4th	GBR	Robert Montgomerie	4th
5	NED	Alfred Labouchere	2
	GBR	Cecil Haig
	BEL	Paul Anspach
8th	GBR	Martin Holt	1

Date: July 17th to 24th,
85 participants from 13 countries.

In the first round on July 17th and 18th, five to seven participants met in 13 groups. The remaining 40 fencers formed eight groups with five participants each in the second round and fought against each other on July 20th. The first two of a group qualified for the semi-finals. The semi-final on July 23 was held in two groups of eight participants each. The first four each advanced to the final, which took place on July 24th. The eight finalists all fought against each other once. The number of victories was decisive for the placement; because of a tie, a play- off had to decide for places 2 to 4 .

Epee team

The French epee team with fencers Olivier , Gravier , Berger , Collignon and Alibert

space	country	athlete
1	FRA	Gaston Alibert , Herman Georges Berger , Charles Collignon , Bernard Gravier , Alexandre Lippmann , Eugène Olivier , Jean Stern
2	GBR	Edgar Amphlett , Leaf Daniell , Cecil Haig , Martin Holt , Robert Montgomerie , Edgar Seligman
3	BEL	Paul Anspach , Désiré Beaurain , Fernand Bosmans , Fernand de Montigny , Ferdinand Feyerick , François Rom , Victor Willems
4th	ITA	Marcello Bertinetti , Giuseppe Mangiarotti , Abelardo Olivier , Riccardo Nowak
5	THE	Otto Becker , Ejnar Levison , Ivan Osiier , Lauritz Østrup , Herbert Sander
6th	BOH	Vilém Goppold von Lobsdorf , Otakar Lada , Vlastimil Lada-Sázavský , Vilém Tvrzský
	GER	Jakob Erckrath de Bary , Julius Lichtenfels , August Petri , Georg Stöhr
	SWE	Eric Carlberg , Gustaf Lindblom , Henry Peyron , Pontus von Rosen
9	NED	Arie de Jong , Jetze Doorman , Alfred Labouchere , George van Rossem

Date: July 20 to 24,
45 participants from 9 countries

A team could consist of up to eight fencers, but only four were allowed to be used per international match. In the final on July 23, France beat Belgium 9: 7. However, it was not the Belgians who won the silver medal, but the British. The second and third place were not determined until July 24th; the hosts won.

Saber single

space	country	athlete	Victories
1	HUN	Jenő fox	6 (+1)
2	HUN	Béla Zulawszky	6th
3	BOH	Vilém Goppold von Lobsdorf	4th
4th	HUN	Jenő Szántay	3
5	HUN	Péter Tóth	3
6th	HUN	Lajos Werkner	2
7th	NED	Jetze Doorman	1
	FRA	Georges de la Falaise	1

Date: July 17 to 24,
76 participants from 11 countries

In the first round on July 17th and 18th, four to seven participants met in 13 groups. The then remaining 38 fencers formed eight groups with four or five participants in the second round on July 20th. The first two of a group qualified for the semifinals on July 23rd. This was held in two groups with eight participants each. The first four each advanced to the final. The eight finalists all fought against each other once on July 24th. The number of victories was decisive for the placement; a tie had to decide for the Olympic victory because of a tie. The saber fencers from Hungary proved to be superior: five of the ten Hungarian participants reached the final and were among the top six. Only the Bohemian von Lobsdorf was able to prevent the total triumph as third.

Saber crew

Fuchs , Gerde , Tóth and Werkner were part of the Hungarian saber team

space	country	athlete
1	HUN	Dezső Földes , Jenő Fuchs , Oszkár Gerde , Péter Tóth , Lajos Werkner
2	ITA	Marcello Bertinetti , Sante Ceccherini , Riccardo Nowak , Alessandro Pirzio Biroli , Abelardo Olivier
3	BOH	Otakar Lada , Vlastimil Lada-Sázavský , Vilém Goppold von Lobsdorf , Jaroslav Tuček , Bedřich Schejbal
4th	FRA	Georges de la Falaise , Bernard de Lesseps , Marc Perrodon , Jean-Joseph Renaud
5	GER	Jakob Erckrath de Bary , Fritz Jack , Robert Krünert , August Petri
6th	BEL	André du Bosch , Étienne Grade , Joseph Van der Voodt , Antoine Van Tomme
	GBR	H. Evan James , William Marsh , Arthur Murray , Charles Wilson
	NED	Jetze Doorman , Arie de Jong , Maurits van Löben Sels , George van Rossem

Date: July 21st to 24th,
35 participants from 8 countries

A team could consist of five fencers, but only four could be used per international match. In the final on July 23, Hungary beat Bohemia 9: 7. Here, too, the decision about second place was not made until July 24th: The Bohemians, who lost in the final, refused to compete again, which is why the silver medal went to Italy.

Web links

• Fencing at the Olympic Games 1908 in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Official report of the Olympic Games 1908 (PDF, 12.4 MB)