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Team USA Begins Competition at Veteran Worlds in Croatia on Wednesday

09/27/2011, 9:23am CDT
By No Author

(Porec, Croatia) – Fifty-eight U.S. fencers ages 50 and older will represent Team USA at the Veteran World Championships in Porec beginning on Wednesday.

In 2010, Team USA earned 11 medals at this event – the most podium finishes for a U.S. Team at a World Championships since the 2007 Veteran Worlds.

Among the members of Team USA are 16 former Veteran World medalists and six past Veteran World Champions.

Ray Sexton III (Round Rock, Texas) won his first ever Veteran Worlds in 1999 as a saber fencer and has since gone on to become the only U.S. athlete to earn Veteran World medals in all three weapons. In addition to his four saber medals, Sexton also earned bronze in epee in 2006 and 2007 and a bronze in foil in 2005. Sexton will compete in both 60-69 saber and foil this year and is favored to win at least one medal to continue his streak of having reached the podium in saber every year since 2008.

Sexton isn’t the only medalist in his family, however, as wife Diane Kallus (Round Rock, Texas) is a top epee fencer in the women’s 60-69 event who has six Veteran World medals to her credit.

The reigning Veteran World Champion in the 50-59 women’s saber, Jane Eyre (Woolwich Township, N.J.) is the only member of Team USA to have one two previous titles. A four-time Veteran World medalist, Eyre is the defending champion in her event and also took gold in 2005. Eyre has not lost a tournament in the U.S. since 2007 and the eight-time National Champion is seeking to become the first U.S. fencer ever to win three Veteran World Championship titles.

One of Eyre’s top rivals, Delia Turner (Philadelphia, Pa.), moved up to the 60-69 saber event for the first time this year.  A two-time Veteran World Champion and five-time Veteran World medalist who won gold in 2002 and 2006, Turner is one of the favorites in her new age bracket.

Competing for the fifth straight year, Walter Dragonetti (Elyria, Ohio) won gold in the men’s 50-59 epee event in 2009 and earned silver and bronze medals in 2007 and 2008.

In the men’s 50-59 foil event, Joseph Biebel (Bayside, Wis.) is looking to earn his second Veteran World title as well. Biebel, a gold medalist in 2003, finished second in both 2005 and 2008 – Biebel’s last year on the team.

In 1998, men’s epee fencer Kazimieras Campe (Edgewater, Md.) won gold in the 60+ event during the second ever Veteran World Championships and returned to the podium in 2010 with a bronze medal finish in the +70 epee event. Now the 74-year-old will be competing to earn his second Veteran World title.

Team USA is being coached by Michael Marx (Boston, Mass.), a four-time Olympian who competed at the 1984, 1988 and 1992 Games in foil and the 1996 Games in epee.

Competition schedule is as follows:

Wednesday, Sept. 28
Women’s 50-59 Foil
Women’s 60-69 Epee
Men’s +70 Saber

Thursday, Sept. 29
Men’s 60-69 Foil
Women’s 60-69 Foil
Men’s 50-59 Saber
Women’s +70 Epee

Friday, Sept. 30
Women’s 60-69 Saber
Women’s +70 Saber
Men’s 50-59 Epee
Women’s 50-59 Epee

Saturday, Oct. 1
Men’s 60-69 Epee
Men’s +70 Epee
Women’s 50-59 Saber
Women’s +70 Foil

Sunday, Oct. 2
Men’s 50-59 Foil
Men’s +70 Foil
Men’s 60-69 Saber

Team USA members are as follows:

Men’s Veteran 50-59 Epee
Walter Dragonetti (Elyria, Ohio)
, three-time Veteran World medalist and 2009 World Champion
Rick Watrall (Mahwah, N.J.)
Charles Schneider (Novi, Mich.)
Sean Ameli (Las Vegas, Nev.)

Men’s Veteran 50-59 Foil
Joseph Biebel (Bayside, Wis.)
, three-time Veteran World medalist and 2003 World Champion
Edward Kaihatsu (Skokie, Ill.)
Jonathan Zelkowski (Ferndale, Mich.)
Philippe Bennett (New York City, N.Y.)

Men’s Veteran 50-59 Saber
Joshua Runyan (San Diego, Calif.)
Dmitri Kopylov (Roseland, N.J.)
Will Milne (Redwood City, Calif.)
Ted Smith (Diamond Springs, N.J.)

Women’s Veteran 50-59 Epee
Elizabeth Kocab (Farmington, Mich.)
Amy Fortune (Monrovia, Calif.)
Valerie Asher (Bethesda, Md.)
Mary Huang (Pasadena, Calif.)

Women’s Veteran 50-59 Foil
Jenette Starks-Faulkner (Middletown, Conn.)
, 2007 Veteran World bronze medalist
Michelle Verhave (Purdys, N.Y.), 2010 Veteran World bronze medalist
Anne-Marie Walters (Parkland, Fla.), 2009 and 2010 Veteran World silver medalist
Suzanne Brown-Marx (Portland, Ore.)

Women’s Veteran 50-59 Saber
Jane Eyre (Woolwich Township, N.J.)
, 2005 and 2010 Veteran World Champion and four-time Veteran World medalist
Heidi Runyan (San Diego, Calif.)
Lydia Mazorol (Simi Valley, Calif.)

Jeanine Bender (Princeton, N.J.)

Men’s Veteran 60-69 Epee
John Ridge (Warminster, Pa.)
Jere Bothelio (San Jose, Calif.)
James Flint (New Hope, Pa.)
Robert Cochrane Jr. (Lake Worth, Fla.)
, two-time Veteran World medalist

Men’s Veteran 60-69 Foil
Jan Patterson (Seattle, Wash.)
Neal White (Chicago, Ill.)

Ray Sexton III (Round Rock, Texas), 1999 Veteran World Champion and eight-time Veteran World medalist
Ronald King (San Diego, Calif.)

Men’s Veteran 60-69 Saber
David Seuss (Charleston, Mass.)
Ray Sexton III (Round Rock, Texas), 1999 Veteran World Champion and eight-time Veteran World medalist
Philip Sbarbaro (Vienna, Va.)
Wang Yung (Bellevue, Wash.)
, three-time Veteran World medalist

Women’s Veteran 60-69 Epee
Diane Kallus (Round Rock, Texas)
, six-time Veteran World medalist
Patricia Bedrosian (Malibu, Calif.), 2005 Veteran World bronze medalist
Anna Estrada (San Francisco, Calif.)
Kathryn Rubin (Waban, Mass
.)

Women’s Veteran 60-69 Foil
Joanne Stevens (New York City, N.Y.)
Muriel Cawthorn (Rehoboth, Mass.)
Madelon Rosenfeld (New York City, N.Y.)

Patricia Bedrosian (Malibu, Calif.), 2005 Veteran World bronze medalist

Women’s Veteran 60-69 Saber
Delia Turner (Philadelphia, Pa.)
, two-time Veteran World Champion and five-time Veteran World medalist
Ellen O’Leary (Decatur, Ga.)
, five-time Veteran World medalist
Diane Hiatt (Sparks, Nev.)
Muriel Evans (Gold River, Calif.)

Men’s Veteran +70 Epee
James Adams (Rockville, Md.)
, three-time Veteran World medalist
Kazimieras Campe (Edgewater, Md.)
, 1998 Veteran World Champion and two-time Veteran World medalist
Mark Henry (Potomac, Md.)
Alexander Kocsy (Strafford, Pa.)

Men’s Veteran +70 Foil
James Adams (Rockville, Md.)
, three-time Veteran World medalist
Fritz Chang (Lexington, Mass.), 2009 Veteran World bronze medalist
David Kosow (Gaithersburg, Md.)

Men’s Veteran +70 Saber
John Terninko (Nottingham, N.H.)
James Adams (Rockville, Md.)
, three-time Veteran World medalist
Victor Bianchini (San Diego, Calif.)
David Kosow (Gaithersburg, Md.)

Women’s Veteran +70 Epee
Bettie Graham (Washington, D.C.)

Women’s Veteran +70 Foil
Bettie Graham (Washington, D.C.)
Judith Evans (Greenwich, Conn.)
Catherine Maier (Atlanta, Ga.)
Una Jackson (Hilton Head, S.C.)

Women’s Veteran +70 Saber
Una Jackson (Hilton Head, S.C.)



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