(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – Three months after the conclusion of the last international Olympic qualifying event – the Senior World Championships – the World Cup circuit resumes this weekend with the Legnano Epee World Cup being held in Italy and the Paris Foil World Cup taking place in France.
Competition at both tournaments begins on Friday with pool and preliminary rounds. Individual competition continues with the table of 64 on Saturday and the team tournament will take place on Sunday.
Following a gold medal win at the Pan American Championships last summer and a top-16 finish at the Senior Worlds, Athens Olympian Soren Thompson (New York City, N.Y.) has risen through the ranks to earn a #10 seed at the epee World Cup in Legnano. Thompson, who won bronze at the Stockholm Grand Prix last May, will be exempt from the pools as one of the top 16 athletes in the tournament who advance directly into the table of 64.
Among Thompson’s 11 teammates in Legnano are three members of the team that won the silver medal at the 2010 Senior World Championships: four-time Senior World Team member Ben Bratton (New York City, N.Y.), two-time Olympian Seth Kelsey (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and Athens Olympian Cody Mattern (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
On Sunday, Thompson is scheduled to compete in the team event with Kelsey, Mattern and Jimmy Moody (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
As men’s epee will not include a team event at the London Games, athletes will be vying for points on the FIE’s individual Adjusted Olympic Rankings from which a maximum of two fencers per nation will be invited to the Games.
Visit www.schermalegnano.it for updated results from Legnano.
In Paris, 11th seed Race Imboden (Brooklyn, N.Y.) and 16th seed Alexander Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.) will each be exempt from competition on Friday. Eighteen-year-old Imboden finished eighth at the Senior Worlds. Meanwhile, Massialas, a bronze medalist at the Seoul World Cup and silver medalist at the Pan Ams last year, moved up from #17 to #16 in November when his bronze medal finish at the Amsterdam satellite event bumped him ahead of four-time Senior World Champion Peter Joppich (GER).
Imboden and Massialas are scheduled to compete in the team event on Sunday with 2010 Senior World medalist Gerek Meinhardt (San Francisco, Calif.) and 2010 Senior World fifth-place finisher Miles Chamley-Watson (Philadelphia, Pa.)
Unlike men’s epee, men’s foil will include both individual and team events in London. Therefore, athletes fencing in Paris will be competing for both individual and team points. With a total of eight teams receiving invitations to the London Games, the top four nations in the Olympic Rankings will be eligible to compete in London with slots also awarded for the top team in each zone (Europe, Americas, Africa and Asia / Oceania). Currently Team USA is ranked as the top nation in the Americas with 170 points – 82 points ahead of second-ranked Canada.
Visit www.escrime-cip.fr/en/competition/result/ for updated results from Paris.
Complete rosters of U.S. athletes competing in both tournaments are as follows:
Legnano Epee World Cup
Ben Bratton (New York City, N.Y.)
Seth Kelsey (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
Cody Mattern (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
Gavin Medley (Santa Fe, N.M.)
Jimmy Moody (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
Rob Rhea (San Francisco, Calif.)
Teddy Sherrill (New York City, N.Y.)
Dwight Smith (Elmont, N.Y.)
Soren Thompson (New York City, N.Y.)
Alexander Tsinis (Little Neck, N.Y.)
Nicholas Vomero (Centerport, N.Y.)
Kyle Wolfson (Beaverton, Ore.)
Paris Foil World Cup
Turner Caldwell (San Francisco, Calif.)
Miles Chamley-Watson (Philadelphia, Pa.)
Jerry Chang (Mountain View, Calif.)
Michael Dudey (Bellaire, Texas)
Adam Elkassas (Du Bois, Pa.)
Kurt Getz (Rye, N.Y.)
Race Imboden (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
Alexander Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.)
Gerek Meinhardt (San Francisco, Calif.)
Benjamin Parkins (The Woodlands, Texas)
David Willette (Lafayette, Calif.)
Michael Woo (Wayne, N.J.)
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