(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – Athens Olympian Soren Thompson (New York City, N.Y.) came one step closer to qualifying for his second Olympic Games on Saturday when he finished 11th at the Doha Grand Prix in Qatar.
Thompson, who won gold at the Pan American Championships in July, moved into sixth place in the FIE Adjusted Olympic Rankings after his first top 16 finish of the new season.
Ranked 11th in the world, Thompson was exempt from the preliminary rounds on Friday and won his first bout over Hamed Sedaghaty (IRI), 15-9, in the table of 64.
In the table of 32, Thompson defeated Tristan Tulen (NED), 15-9, and advanced to the table of 16 as the only U.S. athlete in the table.
Thompson fenced two-time Senior World medalist Bas Verwijlen (NED) in the next round, but lost the bout, 15-9, and finished 11th overall.
Thompson’s Athens teammate Cody Mattern (Colorado Springs, Colo.) earned his second top-32 finish of the Olympic qualifying season on Saturday when he finished 23rd.
Seeded 33rd, Mattern won his opening bout against Ruslan Gudayev (UKR), 15-9, but lost in the table of 32, to top seed Geza Imre (HUN), 15-13.
Two-time Olympian Seth Kelsey (Colorado Springs, Colo.) sustained an injury during his table of 64 bout against and lost to Radoslaw Zawrotniak (POL), 15-9. Kelsey finished 43rd overall.
Jimmy Moody (Colorado Springs, Colo.) earned his first table of 64 finish of the Olympic qualifying season with a 52nd place result after a 15-14 loss to Jin Sun Jung (KOR), a fifth-place finisher at the 2008 Olympic Games.
Top eight and U.S. results are as follows, including athletes who were eliminated on Friday:
Doha Epee Grand Prix
1. Kyoung Doo Park (KOR)
2. Silvio Fernandez (VEN)
3. Nikolai Novosjolov (EST)
3. Bas Verwijlen (NED)
5. Jin Sun Jung (KOR)
6. Tigran Bajgoric (CAN)
7. Jean-Michel Lucenay (FRA)
8. Francesco Martinelli (ITA)
11. Soren Thompson (New York City, N.Y.)
23. Cody Mattern (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
43. Seth Kelsey (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
52. Jimmy Moody (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
73. Benjamin Bratton (New York City, N.Y.)
94. Nicholas Vomero (Centerport, N.Y.)
98. Rob Rea (San Francisco, Calif.)
109. Alexander Tsinis (Little Neck, N.Y.)
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