Sabre is a game built on distance and footwork above all else. This is an idea I try to instill into new fencers from their first hour in the sport. In most cases, it’s an issue of getting into the right distance to hit, but sometimes even that isn’t required. Here’s a pretty funny exchange between Montano and Anstett in the round of 16 at Kazan, which reinforces that it’s never necessarily a bad thing to fall short:
[gfycat data_id="UltimateBareAmericanbittern"]All sniggering aside, Montano’s footwork throughout that whole thing is absolutely superb. The relentlessness of his attacks have been noted before, particularly with this excellent analytical video from CyrusofChaos.
The full match has just been posted to our YouTube channel, and has some pretty cracking hits in it from Montano.
There are some magnificent parries, from the dramatic:
[gfycat data_id="UniqueDisguisedBallpython
"]To the emphatic:
[gfycat data_id="TimelyVastCero
"]And an almost but not quite magnificent parry from Anstett:
[gfycat data_id="AggravatingHorribleHarpseal"]And here’s the full bout:
Montano seemed to be having entirely too much fun in this comp right up until he came up against Kovalev in the 8. Things went rapidly downhill from there.