The powerful Russian Team

One year after I retired, I became licensed by the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne http://www.pentathlon.org/ (event: Fencing - Epee), later I obtained my license by the Fédération Internationale d'Escrime http://www.fie.ch/. Since 1998, I am one of the few Mexican Referees who can participate in Pan-American Games, World Championships and the Olympic Games; I have only refereed in World Championships though.

One of the outstanding memories I have is from the Sydney Olympics Qualifiers in the early spring of 2000. Almost 200 pentathletes from 60 countries were gathered in the Mexican Military College to obtain a place in their national teams for the Summer Games. Only the first 3 (men and women) would qualify.

Before I forget, I want to make a short comment. Usually the discipline and charisma among the pentathletes worldwide is very similar. Most of the pentas, belong to the Army or Navy... always.

The same faces and friends I had met long time ago. The noisy Italians, the friendship of the Swedish, the discipline of the Hungarians, and the Russian Team.

The Russian teams have always been identified (among some other things) by their competitive philosophy. The team is formed by 3 (men and women). They always have a late 30´s gal (the experienced), the mid-20´s girl (the best ranked in the world) and the youngest (between 15 and 18 years old). Natalia SAVOROVA (the youngest and 15 years old) is starring this tale.

During the Fencing competition, all the fencers (Pentas, yet I’ll call them fencers) are placed in groups of 32 fencers, then each athlete fences against the other 31 (all-around) for a match which lasts 1.0 minutes. If the stopwatch runs out of time, but fencers lose the bout. So essentially the dynamic of the competition is the following: you know to which piste you should go, you fence one minute, you go against the next opponent, with a few seconds to rest, fence again and so on. It’s been calculated that the Fencing Competition lasts around 3 hours.

Savorova who is the sweetest girls I had met in my fencing years did not speak a single word in English. So every time I asked her to fence (On guard !, Prêt ? Allez !!!), she used to say "yes" blinking her blue-eyes and sharing a smile with you. Savorova lost two consecutives bouts, against MALM (Sweden) and DENICHERT (Swiss), she wall called to go to the next piste. At the same time, the Russian Coach (mid-50’s) approaches Savorova and he begins to shout at her for about 1 minute. Savorova sat on the piste and agreed everything her coach was saying (yelling) to her. The next two bouts were not better than the former ones, Savorova lost against KEISER (Germany) and DELAIGNE (France). During the transition to the next piste. Before Savorova disconnects herself from the reel (and the scoring machine), the Russian Coach jumps onto the piste, HOLDS Savorova from the neck and slaps her on the face, not once, not twice but thrice !!!.

Savorova, sat on the piste and began to cry. All the referees were shocked when we saw that !!!; I was going to approach her/him when Martin BENITEZ (my friend and former coach) grabs my arm and tells me: "Leo, DO NOT INTERFERE, that’s the way they solve their problems.” After a rest of 10 minutes, the competition continues, Savorova began to win bout after bout.

A few rounds later I had a word with a friend who was member of the USSR Team, since 1993 she lives in the States. Between joke and joke I asked her: “What was the Russian Coach shouting to Savorova ?”. She answers… “Hard to say… basically he was saying, we did not want to lose his coaching job, due to Savorova´s incompetence”.

The powerful Russian Team, a team I will never forget…



Picture: Leo Hernandez refereeing the match between Italy against Poland.