(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – David Willette (Lafayette, Calif.) and Race Imboden (Brooklyn, N.Y.) both advanced to the table of 64 at the St. Petersburg Foil Grand Prix at the conclusion of the pool and preliminary rounds in Russia on Friday.
The two will join Miles Chamley-Watson (Philadelphia, Pa.) and Gerek Meinhardt (San Francisco, Calif.), both of whom earned automatic entries into the table of 64 due to their top-16 rankings in the world.
Willette won five of six bouts to qualify as the ninth-ranked fencer at the conclusion of the pools. Imboden, who won the Junior World team title with Willette in April, won three of six bouts in the pools and defeated Jean Francois Sigouin (CAN), 15-8, in the preliminary table.
Just two weeks after winning bronze at the Seoul Foil World Cup, 17-year-old Alexander Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.) won five of six bouts in the pools and missed directly qualifying for the table of 64 by a single touch as he had an indicator of 11 and the top 16 athletes at the conclusion of the pools had indicators of 12 or more. In the preliminary tables, Massialas had a first round bye, but lost his second bout to Marius Braun (GER), 9-8.
Nineteen-year-old Jeremy Goldstein (Westport, Conn.) won two of six pool bouts and defeated Ylod Yunes (UKR), 15-14, in the preliminary table of 128 before losing to Sebastian Bachmann (GER), 15-8.
Ariel DeSmet (Portland, Ore.) did not advance out of the pools after posting a 1-5 record.
Kurt Getz (Rye, N.Y.) also competed in the tournament, but withdrew during the pools.
Tag(s): News Race Imboden
