N.Z. fencer receives best-ever placing

Press, 26 September 1988, Page 23

N.Z. fencer receives best-ever placing

PA Seoul The New Zealand, fencer, Martin Brill, thrust and parried to his highest ever placing in international .. competition at the Olympics on Saturday evening. Brill, aged 32, finished a very creditable seventh over all in the individual event, his best placing and one that compared with fifteenth at Los Angeles four years ago. His final bout only lasted a bare three minutes when he was outfought by Andrei Chouvalov, aged 23, of the Soviet Union, the runnerup world champion last year and second seed for the Olympic competition. Chouvalov, who went on to win the Olympic bronze, defeated fifteenth seed Brill 10 hits to 3. Earlier in the day Chouvalov had beaten Brill by a much closer margin, 10-9, but in the intervening break

the final session on Saturday evening had worked on ways to counter the New Zealander’s attack. “He was ready for me with his counterattacks,” Brill said. “He turned out to be a better fencer.” However, the Parisbased Brill said he was far from disappointed. “I am pleased at how far I got and went further than most people thought possible,” he said. Amd Schmitt, of West Germany, who beat Chouvalov in the next round, won the gold while Philippe Riboud, of France, took the silver. In his bout with Clou-

valov, Brill scored first on the Russian. But his opponent came back quickly, outsmarting Brill a number of times to get the winning 10 points after only three minutes of the allowed 10 minutes. Brill’s wife and manager, Katherine, said Brill had caught the Soviet off his guard in the earlier contest and so Chouvalov had worked on ways to counter the New Zealander in the evening session. “It is a very respectable result for someone from a very small country,” she said. Brill had to fight 20 bouts in all over the days of competition and said he had “given everything” he had, both mentally and physically. “I thought I had a fighting chance of a medal because I was a dark horse. I knew who they were but they didn’t know who I was so I had to take the opportunities,” he said.