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Miles Chamley-Watson and Race Imboden Place in Top 16 at St. Petersburg Foil Grand Prix

06/05/2011, 12:18pm CDT
By Nicole Jomantas

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – Miles Chamley-Watson (Philadelphia, Pa.) and Race Imboden (Brooklyn, N.Y.) both advanced to the table of 16 at the St. Petersburg Foil Grand Prix in Russia on Saturday where Chamley-Watson placed ninth and Imboden finished 16th.

As the #2-ranked foil fencer in the world, Chamley-Watson automatically qualified for the table of 64 and was exempt from competing in the pools and preliminary rounds on Friday while Imboden qualified for Saturday’s tables by winning three bouts in the pools and a fourth in the preliminary table against Jean Francois Sigouin (CAN).

In the table of 64, Chamley-Watson won his first bout of the weekend against Andriy Pogrebnyak (UKR), 15-12. Imboden was matched up in the first round against Valerio Aspromonte (ITA) who was ranked #4 in the world earlier this month. Eighteen-year-old Imboden earned a close win over Aspromonte, 15-14 – the third 15-14 win for a U.S. teenager over the Italian in the last month after Alexander Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.) and David Willette (Lafayette, Calif.) defeated Aspromonte at the Seoul Foil World Cup and the Shanghai Grand Prix, respectively.

Chamley-Watson earned a second 15-12 win in the table of 32 where he defeated Enzo Lefort (FRA) while Imboden won his bout against Pawel Kawiecki (POL), 15-10.

In the table of 16, Chamley-Watson lost to Dmitri Rigine (RUS), 15-11, to place ninth overall for his second straight top-16 finish of the Olympic qualifying season after placing 10th at the Seoul World Cup two weeks ago. Imboden lost to Richard Kruse (GBR), 15-5, and finished 16th – Imboden’s first top-16 finish ever at a major senior international event.

Willette and Gerek Meinhardt (San Francisco, Calif.) both competed in the table of 64 as well, but each lost in the opening round.

Willette lost his first bout to Alexey Khovansk (RUS), 15-10, to finish 35th and Meinhardt was defeated by Roland Schlosser (AUT), 15-8, to finish 34th.

Competition will continue in St. Petersburg on Sunday when the U.S. women begin the World Cup event which will include individual competition on Sunday and Monday and a team event on Tuesday.

The following U.S. athletes are scheduled to compete:

  • Emily Cross (New York City, N.Y.)
  • Lee Kiefer (Lexington, Ky.)
  • Eve Levin (New York City, N.Y.)
  • Margaret Lu (Greenwich, Conn.)
  • Adrienne Nott (Honeoye Falls, N.Y.)
  • Nzingha Prescod (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
  • Nicole Ross (New York City, N.Y.)
  • Ambika Singh (Skillman, N.J.)
  • Doris Willette (Lafayette, Calif.)
  • Hyun-Kyung Yuh (Scarsdale, N.Y.)?

Click here to view complete results and the table of 64.

Top eight and U.S. results for the men’s Grand Prix are as follows:

St. Petersburg Foil Grand Prix
1. Andrea Baldini (ITA)
2. Andrea Cassara (ITA)
3. Alaa El Din El Sayed (EGY)
3. Victor Sintes (FRA)
5. Peter Joppich (GER)
6. Richard Kruse (GBR)
7. Giorgio Avola (ITA)
8. Dmitri Rigine (RUS)

9. Miles Chamley-Watson (Philadelphia, Pa.)
16. Race Imboden (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
34. Gerek Meinhardt (San Francisco, Calif.)
35. David Willette (Lafayette, Calif.)
66. Alexander Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.)
95. Jeremy Goldstein (Westport, Conn.)
123. Ariel DeSmet (Portland, Ore.)



Tag(s): News  Race Imboden  Miles Chamley-Watson