1.
SV: Martini International Fencing Club Challenge sign
0.03

2.
GV: Bout between Behr and Rainer Wirz both from Germany (Wirz on right) in preliminary bouts. (Wirz's point)
0.24

3.
SV: Crowd applauding
0.27

4.
GV: Wirz and Behr in bout. (Behr's point)
0.40

5.
GV: Behr charges Wirz and touches.
0.56

6.
SV: Behr charges Wirz, but Wirz makes an under touch to win bout.
1.02

7.
SV: Wirz receiving trophy after winning Semi-final and final
1.12




Initials RH/



SPORT: FENCING

Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: In the first major competition of the 1980 international fencing championships, in Paris on Sunday (27 January), a young German student Rainer Wirz knocked out the favoured contenders to take the Martini Challenge Cup trophy. Only six months away from the Moscow Olympics, the world's principle contenders from many countries faced each other in this traditional men's fleuret challenge, except the Soviets who stayed at home.

SYNOPSIS: The bouts of the competition, first organised by the League of Paris in 1953, were held at the Coubertin stadium in Paris.

The final winner Wirz, early in the competition faced fellow countrymen Behr. Neither fencer was expected to make the finals. Wirz is fencing from the right, and makes the touch.

The majority of the challengers, like Wirz are only in their twenties - a young age to mature in a sport, where technique is paramount.

The Wirz-Behr bout continues after Behr got a touch, when Wirz takes the match. In the semi-finals he defeated Junior World Champion, Frenchman, Didier Flament. He then went on to win the final from Italian Angelo Scuri, another relative outsider.

Wirz takes his trophy. The later barrage competition between the winners of the five previous years, was won by Wirz's fellow countryman Harald Hein.