SALVATORE SANZO (ITA) - Men's Foil - BEST MOMENTS 

You're referring to the 2001 World Championships. 2005 was won by Sanzo, but there were Zhang, Deev, and Beaudan among the rest of the final four.

+Luke Mitchell Thank you!!!! I really appreciate you sharing the video with his club! :D Yes, Sanzo had an incredible feeling. One of my favorite touches is the one from 2:25. How he stopped Zhang and then immediately attacked. He nailed that timing! What impresses me the most is the way he could change his game to any situation. He had so much in his repertoire.

That hit at 2:25 was just beautiful. It wasn't even a very fast lunge but the distance and timing was perfect. Not only that but Liang-Liang (who was the Chinese fencer in that bout, it was at the 2005 WCH's) is an incredibly powerful fencer but could not break Sanzo's rhythm. Sanzo was incredibly strong mentally too. Heck, his bout with Yuki Ota during Beijing was a difficult one. Yuki Ota as we all know is/was one of the fastest foilists on the strip. Sanzo is not a very fast fencer but instead of trying to match Ota in speed, he used his intuition to find the timing. Even though he does lose that bout, it's still an amazing match to watch again and again. Both Ota and Sanzo are fencers with very different styles and use very different strategies but in that bout you see how they play to their strengths and try to cover their weaknesses really well.

Luke Mitchell he just makes it look like feeling, it's really all planned, he was the greatest tactical fencer I've ever seen. Everything he did was based off of information that he gathered, he memorized his opponents tendencies, how they would respond to what he showed them, and he made intricate plans around that information in order to build these perfect moments that end up looking like he just "felt" it. When I think feeling, I think of a guy like Miles Chamley-Watson. He fences instinctually and has a more perfect natural feel for the sport than almost anyone else. He has said that he doesn't really think when he fences. I think "feeling" kinda sells sanzo's tactical abilities short.

Comments from 2020 here. I've watched many (at least to me) Ota and Avola bouts enough to see what their fencing style is. You said that Sanzo and Ota have very different fencing style, which I disagree. Based on how you describes Sanzo's fencing style, I will say that he has quite similar style with Avola, which in my opinion has similar style with Ota (their defensive approach is quite similar, Avola is obviously a defensive fencer while Ota is more defensive and deceptive than most people see, and both of them are quite technical fencer) But that's just my opinion. You are free to disagree. Not that I expect someone to reply a comment that replied to their comment after two years.

@@christianalbertjahns2577 hm, I would say that ota and Avila were more aggressive!