You even tried it once. Coach Vilmos Szabo’s saber team actually tried to be a little calmer. With less noise, less yelling, less stomping. Maybe that brings out finer strengths, they thought, maybe more precision, reason, planning, as almost all sports offer.
After a few days, Szabo realized: “Forget it.” Your proven tactics remain: full attack!
Saber fencing will be the party again, also at the Fencing World Championships in Milan, which started with the qualifications on Saturday and will fight out the first individual decisions from Tuesday. There are already signs of a World Cup with light and shadow. Unlike in athletics, for example, Russian athletes who formally have nothing to do with the military are admitted as neutral athletes. Because that doesn’t change the fact that they could have stayed Russian and also met Ukrainian fencers, the latter, which was clear, will stay away from the World Cup. They also have strong fencers who are now not going to the planches in Milan.
Three out of four top sabers have retired
On which the foil, sword and saber are used for fencing. And things are getting serious for the German teams too, because the World Cup gives a clear performance level, after which the coaches know how much work there is still to do in order to be at the Olympics in Paris in 2024. At the European Championships a month ago, the German fencers won three team and two individual bronze medals: the men and women with the foil, including the 2022 European champion, Leonie Ebert – and the sabers, most of whom interpret their sport out loud; the Germans a little louder.
Their sporting rampage on the fencing piste is not just any trick, but supporting dynamics, the philosophy of trainer Szabo. It’s very simple: “It’s a maximum of two steps, then comes the decisive lunge, so” – and now the coach is going through something – “everything has to explode at the starting line.” It’s fractions of a second, then the fencers collide, the Germans mostly more powerful in the end, which is why they have collected some successes. But right now it’s going to be difficult. Three of his four top sabers have retired, including World and European Champion Max Hartung. The coach’s son Matyas Szabo, who is now not only a fencer but also a leader, is still there from the old team.
What should the future look like there, with so little experience in the team and with lots of unknown names? Well, saber fencing is also unpredictable, and since the European Championships in May everyone on the scene has known the new team: Frederik Kindler, Raoul Bonah and his brother Luis, who stood in for the injured Lorenz Kempf. But above all, in the decisive team battle of the small European Championship final against Hungary, the still inexperienced Bonah stood out, whom the 33-year-old Aron Szilagyi, individual Olympic champion from London, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo and who has been awarded 17 other major plaques, got to know very well.
The victory in June could motivate the young team decisively on the way to the Olympics
In all sports one can experience a moment of glory, although it is probably more often the case in fencing. It’s less about measuring speed, height or distance, but about self-confidence and cheekiness, building up small success stories, about unmasking the opponent’s strengths, in short – it’s about catching a flow towards victory. And in this team final you needed an experienced, yes, sly coach like Szabo. He didn’t set up his son Matyas against Szilagyi, but one from the rest of the team who is still green behind the ears: Raoul Bonah.
bonah? Szilagyi didn’t know him yet, besides, says Szabo, he has exactly the fencing style that Szilagyi finds difficult to deal with. The coach now had the choice of conceding a probable but decent defeat or winning a previously almost hopeless but eminently important victory.
It was then a victory, the significance of which could go far beyond the European Championships in Kraków. The tactic worked, Bonah scored a total of 15 points mid-fight, including against Szilagyi, who then lost faith in himself, at least that day. In the end it was Bronze for this unusual German team, which is set to continue the successes of the Sabers.
The World Cup in Milan is an important first hurdle that the team would have to overcome to some extent. After all, it’s about the near future, the qualification for the Olympics in Paris 2024. At best, Szabo’s quartet will take the boost from the success of the European Championships for the team competition on Friday after the individual competitions and will assert themselves again in the coming months, namely in the world rankings – ideally against Italy and France. However: “It will be very difficult,” says Szabo.
Because that requires a common belief in your own team, which applies to all weapons. The women’s and men’s foil of the German Fencing Federation also has a chance for Paris, the German epee fencers still have to improve significantly. And every quartet motivates itself in its own way for victory, in the rankings as well as on the piste, but not every one as loudly as Szabo’s saber.
