skip navigation

Alexander Massialas Wins Second Cadet World Title, Anna Van Brummen Places Fifth

03/31/2011, 9:51am CDT
By No Author

(Amman, Jordan) – Sixteen-year-old Alexander Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.) made history on Thursday when he became the first U.S. man to earn two world titles in cadet, junior or senior competition.

Massialas has competed at the Cadet Worlds every year since his first year of eligibility as a 13-year-old in 2008. With individual bronze and gold medals to his credit in 2009 and 2010, respectively, Massialas returned to the event as the favorite to win the division, but said he came into this event wanting to focus on doing well and not relying on past successes.

“A lot of people win Cadets and then come back and fizzle out because they get cocky, so I didn’t want to be too overconfident,” Massialas said. Massialas’s win makes him the first men’s foil fencer from any country to successfully defend his Cadet title since 1992. A two-time Senior World Team member, Massialas began his day by dominating the pools, giving up just seven touches in six bouts.

“Two other people did the exact same thing, so it wasn’t that amazing,” laughed Massialas who was coached by his father, three-time Olympian Greg Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.) throughout the day. “You just have to focus. Five-touch bouts are a lot more intense than 15 ‘cause there’s only a few amount of touches so you just have to work through it.”

Seeded third in the pools, Massialas earned a bye into the table of 32 and made quick work of Andras Nemeth (HUN) whom Massialas defeated, 15-2. Also in Massialas’ bracket was his teammate Nobuo Bravo (San Francisco, Calif.) who won his bout against Boo-Yeong Hwang (KOR), 15-11, to set up a bout in the table of 16 between the two athletes from the Massialas Foundation at Halberstadt. Although Massialas, a two-time Senior World Team member, is the more experienced athlete of the two, Bravo came to Jordan with medal aspirations of his own and took a quick lead, 7-2.

After the first break, Massialas came back to tie the score at 11, but was given a red card for head ducking and Bravo pulled ahead with the resulting single score for Massialas’s penalty. Going into the third period, Bravo was down, 14-13, but earned a quick touch to tie the score at 14. Massialas closed the bout with the final touch, to earn the win 15-14 – a result which meant Bravo had scored more touches on his teammates than any of Massialas’ previous seven opponents combined.

“It’s really unfortunate that we fenced that early because I’ve known him all my life. We’ve gone to school together for nine years. I’ve known him basically since we were toddlers. So obviously it was good he was here and at that level, but I think everyone wishes we were in different brackets. We’ve been training non-stop for this event against with each other and then we end up fencing each other here. That part just stinks,” Massialas said.

Massialas won his next bout against Balint Matyas (HUN), 15-6, to advance to the evening semifinal.

“It was late in the day, but you just have to keep your head in the game,” Massialas said.

Massialas had little trouble focusing during his next two bouts as he defeated Ilya Degtyarev (RUS), 15-7, and Georg Dorr (GER), 15-5.

“It feels really awesome to win again,” said Massialas who also noted the closeness of his teammates. “The whole U.S. Team has been very supportive of each other and I’ve been in good company.”

With little time to rest, Massialas will return to the strip on Sunday to compete in the junior division and next Wednesday to fence in the team event. Massialas placed fifth as a junior in 2010 and was a member of the gold medal squad that won the team event.

“I was fifth last year and Meinhardt, my teammate, was second and most of those guys have graduated, so a lot of people would expect me to do well, but, again, you don’t want to be over confident because there will be consequences,” he said.

Jerry Chang (Mountain View, Calif.) also competed in the men’s foil division where he placed 18th.

Chang came out of the pools with a 5-1 record that qualified him for the table of 32, but he lost in the table of 32 to Andre Raisch (GER), 15-6.

While Massialas came to the Cadet Worlds with a wealth of experience to his credit, 16-year-old Anna Van Brummen (Houston, Texas) said she began the women’s epee event on Thursday with the goal of advancing to the main table of 64, but soon found herself as the #2 seed coming out of the pools with a bye into the table of 32.

“When I first went into the pools, I just wanted to make sure I won two to make it past the cut and then I won three and was like ‘Oh, that’s good’ and then one the fourth and I was like ‘Wow, even better!’ and that was how it was til the end when I was like ‘Oh, I won all my pools!’” Van Brummen laughed.

Van Brummen’s U.S. teammate Audrey Abend (New York City, N.Y.) came out of the pools as the #7 seed, putting her in the same quadrant of the draw as Van Brummen and Jessie Radanovich (Tollhouse, Calif.) who went 3-3 in the pools.

Abend and Radanovich needed a win each to face each other in the table of 32, but Abend lost to Daniela Khrapina (RUS) in her opening bout. Abend trailed Khrapina throughout the match before earning two touches when the score sat at 14-4. Although Abend was poised for a comeback, Khrapina scored the final touch to win the bout, leaving Abend with a 33rd place finish.

Radanovich was tied with Nickol Tal (ISR), 9-9, at the end of the second period, but Tal pulled ahead to win the bout, 14-11. Radanovich finished 44th overall.

As the only member of the U.S. squad left in the women’s epee event, Van Brummen won her next bout against Viktoria Lejon (SWE), 15-10, and defeated Reka Bohus (HUN) in the table of 16, 15-6, to advance to the quarter-finals against Yulia Bakhareva (RUS), a three-time Cadet World Team member who went on to take the bronze after defeating Van Brummen, 15-9.

 

“I wish I could have fenced better because when I was fencing her I was like ‘Oh my God I could win a medal’ and started freaking out,” said Van Brummen who placed fifth overall. “I think I could have done better, but I’m perfectly happy with how I did. I’m really happy, actually.”

Van Brummen will compete in the junior division on Sunday and in the team event on Wednesday. “It feels good now that I’ve done well because it makes me less nervous for juniors,” Van Brummen said. “I’ve fenced [Cadet World silver medalist] Alona Komarov before , too, and was up 14-12 before she beat me, so I know well I can do well because I’m on the same level as some of these girls.”

Junior competition begins on Friday when the women’s foil and men’s saber will take the strip.

Junior Men’s Saber
Evan Prochniak (Hudson, N.H.)
Sean Buckley (Secaucus, N.J.)
Rhys Douglas (Apache Junction, Ariz.)

Junior Women’s Foil 

 

Lee Kiefer (Lexington, Ky.)
Nzingha Prescod (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
Margaret Lu (Greenwich, Conn.)

Top eight and U.S. results are as follows:

Cadet Women’s Epee
1. Sheng Lin (CHN)
2. Alona Komarov (ISR)
3. Yulia Bakhareva (RUS)
3. Alberta Sntuccio (ITA)
5. Anna Van Brummen (Houston, Texas)
6. Violetta Khrapina (RUS)
7. Daria Strelnikov (ISR)
8. Amanda Simeao (BRA)

33. Audrey Abend (New York City, N.Y.)
44. Jessie Radanovich (Tollhouse, Calif.)

Cadet Men’s Foil
1. Alexander Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.)
2. Georg Doerr (GER)
3. Ilya Degtyarev (RUS)
3. Alexander Choupenitch (CZE)
5. Francesco Marotta (ITA)
6. Balint Matyas (HUN)
7. Kristian Archer (GBR)
8. Bogdan Dolzhenko (UKR)

10. Nobuo Bravo (San Francisco, Calif.)
18. Jerry Chang (Mountain View, Calif.)

Tag(s): News  Alexander Massialas  Anna van Brummen