(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – Just over a week after his 19th birthday, 2012 U.S. Olympic Team nominee Race Imboden (Brooklyn, N.Y.) placed 11th at the Wakayama Grand Prix in Japan on Sunday.
Imboden was one of four U.S. fencers – all nominees to the 2012 Olympic Team – to advance to the table of 64 in the 93-athlete event.
As the sixth and 10th seeds, respectively, both Imboden and 18-year-old Alexander Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.) were exempt from the pools and preliminary rounds on Saturday and advanced directly to the table of 64 on Sunday.
Massialas, a two-time World Cup medalist, defeated Kyoya Ichikawa (JPN), 15-9, in the table of 64, but lost to Ryo Miyake (JPN), 15-13, and finished 20th overall.
Imboden won his first two bouts each with scores of 15-9 against Dmitry Komissarov (RUS) and 2011 Junior World ChampionEdoardo Luperi (ITA).
In the table of 16, three-time Senior World medalist Sheng Lei (CHN) built a 4-0 lead, but Imboden came back to bring the score to 9-8 lead of his own before Lei ended the bout, 15-11.
Miles Chamley-Watson (Philadelphia, Pa.) dropped just one bout in the pools on Saturday and advanced directly to the table of 64 as the 19th seed.
Chamley-Watson won his opening bout against Marcel Marcilloux (FRA), 15-11, in the table of 64, but finished the day in 22nd place after a 15-9 loss to Jianfei Ma (CHN) who went on to win gold.
Beijing Olympian Gerek Meinhardt (San Francisco, Calif.) was injured during the pools, but still produced a 3-3 result to advance to the table of 64 after a bye through the preliminary tables.
In the table of 64, however, Meinhardt lost to 2010 Senior World medalist Victor Sintes (FRA), 15-8.
Top eight and U.S. results are as follows:
Wakayama Foil Grand Prix
1. Jianfei Ma (CHN)
2. Byung Chul Choi (KOR)
3. Marius Braun (GER)
3. Richard Kruse (GBR)
5. Sheng Lei (CHN)
6. James Davis (GBR)
7. Enzo Lefort (FRA)
8. Alessio Foconi (ITA)
11. Race Imboden (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
20. Alexander Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.)
22. Miles Chamley-Watson (Philadelphia, Pa.)
59. Gerek Meinhardt (San Francisco, Calif.)
69. Michael Woo (Wayne, N.J.)
71. Jerry Chang (Mountain View, Calif.)
Tag(s): News Race Imboden
