(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – Beijing Olympian James Williams (New York City, N.Y.) earned his first top-eight finish at a World Cup since 2008 in Moscow on Saturday.
After fencing his way through the pools and preliminary rounds on Friday, Williams found himself with a 46th seed and a first-round match-up against his 2008 Olympic Teammate Tim Morehouse (New York City, N.Y.)
In a rematch of their final bout at the North American Cup in October in which Morehouse won the gold, Williams came out ahead this time with a score of 15-12 which left Morehouse with a 38th place finish in the event.
Williams soon found himself as the only American to advance out of the table of 64 as teammates Jeff Spear (Wynantskill, N.Y.) lost in the opening round on Saturday to Bon-Gil Gu (KOR), 15-7, and Luther Clement (New York City, N.Y.) fell to eventual bronze medalist Julien Medard (FRA), 15-12. Spear went on to finish 63rd while Clement placed 46th.
In the next round, Williams trounced 2010 Junior World medalist Stanislav Konopatskiy (UKR), 15-4, to advance to the table of 16 for the first time this season.
Williams earned another solid victory with a 15-8 win over 2008 Junior World medalist Nikita Proskura (RUS) in his third bout of the day, but lost to eventual champion Gu in the quarter-finals, 15-11, and placed seventh overall.
On Sunday, Williams, Morehouse, Spear and 2010 World Team member Daryl Homer (New York City, N.Y.) competed together in the team event where Team USA placed sixth.
The U.S. men won their opening bout against Ukraine, 45-43, but lost to France, the 2010 World silver medalists, 45-38, in the bout that would have put Team USA in the semifinals.
Competing in the fifth-eighth place table, Team USA defeated rival Canada, 45-42 before losing a hard-fought bout to Romania, 45-35.
Top-eight and U.S. results are as follows:
Moscow Saber Individual World Cup
1. Bon-Gil Gu (KOR)
2. Nicolas Lopez (FRA)
3. Julien Medard (FRA)
3. Alexey Yakimenko (RUS)
5. Zsolt Nemcsik (HUN)
6. Andriy Yagodka (UKR)
7. James Williams (New York City, N.Y.)
8. Aliaksandr Buikevich (BLR)
38. Tim Morehouse (New York City, N.Y.)
46. Luther Clement (New York City, N.Y.)
63. Jeff Spear (Wynantskill, N.Y.)
72. Avery Zuck (Portland, Ore.)
83. Daryl Homer (New York City, N.Y.)
90. Mihail Etropolski (Floral Park, N.Y.)
92. Daniel Bak (Franklin Lakes, N.J.)
104. Teddy Weller (Barrington, R.I.)
Moscow Saber Team World Cup
1. Russia
2. Germany
3. Belarus
4. Italy
5. Romania
6. USA
7. Hungary
8. Canada
Tag(s): News
