Foil, Team, Men

Poland had first won a medal in team foil back at the 1961 World Championships. They were regular visitors to the medal podium for the rest of the decade but a global title had always eluded them.

The competition did not start well for the Poles as they suffered a defeat to the host nation in their first match. Poland recovered to beat Italy and Japan and then won a close fought semi-final victory against the Hungarians. The other semi-final was a meeting of the two most recent World Champion teams which saw the USSR earn the right to face Poland via a 9-6 over France.

Three days earlier Witold Woyda had won the individual foil title. In the team final he took that form forward and won all four of his bouts. Woyda was backed up by Lech Koziejowski and Poland finally made their championship breakthrough as they saw off the Soviet challenge by 9 bouts to 6.

After a decade of major title frustration Woyda had now won his second Olympic title in three days.