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Title
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Foil Team Results
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Date
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July 1936
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volume
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1
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issue
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15
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pages
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1, 3
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content
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en
FOIL TEAM RESULTS
Despite Joe Levis' phenomenal record of 15 victories in 16 bouts, the American foil team failed to reach the finals of the Olympic foil team championship when it was handed an unexpected and decisive defeat by the Austrian team, 12-4, and then, without Levis or Hugh Alessandroni, suffered an expected 13-3 beating at the hands of Italy's championship team.
When the 18 teams in the competition were separated into six pools of 3, the United States was pitched against Hungary and Norway. The Americans beat the Norwegians decisively, 12-4. Levis and Alessandroni each won 4 bouts, while Potter and Hurd broke even with 2 wins and 2 losses. As Norway then lost to Hungary 10-6, the U.S. passed to the second round where it was pitted against Italy and Switzerland. Again the U.S. team scored decisively, leading the Swiss 13-3. Levis and Alessandroni repeated their clean sweeps while Dow and Pecora scored 3 and 2 victories respectively. Pecora’s two defeats were close 5-4 bouts. When Italy beat the Swiss 14-1 (one bout unfenced), the American team reached the semi-final.
In one semi-final, Italy, U.S.A., Austria and Hungary were drawn together. In the other pool were France, Belgium, Argentine and Germany. The Argentine team, however, had had a difficult time getting by the British team, as they tied in bouts 8-8, and won on touches 57-62, thanks to Larraz’s marvelous record in winning 4 bouts with only 6 touches against him.
The Technical Committee decided to start the semi-finals on the evening of the first day, so that the American team, after an inadequate time allowance for dinner, was pitted against the Austrians.
The match started well enough, with Levis beating Sudrich 5-2, but Alessandroni, Dow and Hurd each lost twice to give Austria a 6-1 lead before Levis came to the mat again to beat Fischer 5-1. Sudrich, Losert and Raydon clinched the match for Austria by successive victories over Dow, Hurd and Levis — all of them by close scores, and the last (the only defeat suffered by the American team captain in the team events) giving the Austrians the coveted 9th victory. Fischer and Sudrich made it 11-2 by defeating Alessandroni and Hurd respectively. Then Levis and Alessandroni surged back to win 5-1 and 5-0 over Losert and Raydon, but Dow lost the last bout to Fischer, so that the match ended at 12-4 for Austria.
The following day, the semi-finals were resumed. Italy (who had defeated Hungary 13-3) meeting the U.S. Conceding the superior strength of the Italian team, the Americans withdrew Levis and Alessandroni, who had borne the brunt of the burden. Pecora starred for the U.S., winning 2 bouts while Hurd won 1, but Dow and Potter each dropped 4 so that Italy won, as expected, 13-3.
Meanwhile, Hungary was upsetting the Austrian team on touches after tying in bouts 8-8, so that the American team got a new opportunity to reach the finals by managing to beat the Hungarians decisively. Levis, Alessandroni, Pecora and Hurd took the field, and won, but only by 9-7. Levis took 4, Pecora 3, Hurd 1, and Alessandroni 2. The latter's showing was discouraging in this match, but he was bothered by a sore foot.
Since Italy defeated Austria, the semi-final results saw Italy with 3 match victories, Austria, U.S.A., and Hungary each with 1 victory and 2 defeats. On the count of bouts won, however, the Austrians by virtue of their wide margin over the United States, earned the place in the finals.
Italy won the championship handily, defeating France 9-4 despite the fact that Gaudini lost all the 3 bouts he fenced. Germany, who showed surprising strength under Casmir's inspiring leadership by trouncing the favored Belgium team in the semi-finals, continued its winning march and earned 3rd place by defeating Austria after losing a hard match to France 9-7. The unofficial scorer gave the U.S. 5th place by virtue of the results of the semi-final.
On the whole, the results showed that Levis is still far superior to the rest of the American team for international competition. Pecora looks like a real find, as in no match did he lose more bouts than he won; he seemed to improve as the tournament progressed. Dow’s game was wrecked partly by the difference in the methods of judging as between Europe and the U.S. Alessandroni was nowhere near as good as he was at the end of our season. Both he and Dow seemed to have lost some of their efficiency. Hurd looks promising, but he lacks experience and technique which however should be forthcoming in the next four years.
