Lt. Sands Regains Epee Title
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Lt. Sands Regains Epee Title
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February 25, 1937
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2
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4
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LT. SANDS REGAINS EPEE TITLE
Lt. Thomas J. Sands won the Metropolitan Epee Championship by defeating Jose de Capriles 3-1 in a fence-off at the Salle d'Armes Vince in the early morning hours of February 12th after seven hours of competition. Sands, who had suffered two losses through the preliminary rounds and one in the final, rallied to defeat the previously unbeaten de Capriles 3-2 after trailing 2-0 with 2 minutes to go in the regular final pool. He then regained the title he had held in 1934 and 1935 by again scoring over his fellow Olympian in the fence-off.
Third place went to N.Y.U.'s intercollegiate champion, Ted Gold, by virtue of his 3-0 victory over his French rival Pierre Netter. John R. Huffman, who scored over Sands in the final, was fourth and Jean V. Grombach tied with Netter for the fifth place.
Thirty-four contestants were on hand at the beginning of the tournament, and as only two strips could be run simultaneously, the semi-final round was not started until after 11:30 P.M. The preliminary round saw the elimination of the defending champion, Hugh V. Alessandroni, when he lost to Netter and Gold by 3-2 scores. The absence of M. de Capriles, Tracy Jaeckel, and J. Barnack detracted somewhat from the quality of the tournament which developed into an interminable marathon. The outstanding performances, aside from that of Sands, were Jose de Capriles’ string of 12 consecutive wins, and Jean Grombach’s 7 victories and 2 ties in his first 10 bouts, although the latter tired toward the end and suffered successive defeats in his last 4 bouts. Gold and Netter fenced steadily through the competition. Von Munchhausen had a fine record of victories until his last 4 bouts of the semi-final, when lack of patience lost him a chance to reach the final. Princeton’s two representatives, Sarnoff and Parmentier, showed good form through the preliminaries and semi-final, as did Kovis Kapner of the U.F.C. and Norman Lewis of N.Y.U. George Thompson, after a fine first round performance, tired in the semi-final winning 2 and losing 3 bouts all by a single touch.
