(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – Three U.S. fencers advanced to the table of 32 at the Venice Foil Grand Prix in Italy on Sunday, but it was 16-year-old Alexander Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.) who earned one of the day’s greatest upsets when he defeated four-time World Champion Peter Joppich (GER), 15-4.
Massialas, a gold medalist at both the 2010 Junior and Cadet Worlds, struggled during the pool competition, winning just two of five bouts on Saturday.
The wins were good enough to move him into the table of 128 where Massialas won his bouts against Serguei Byk (BLR), 10-6, and Philippe Jorgensen (DEN), 15-12, to advance to the table of 64 on Sunday.
In his next bout, however, Massialas lost to Alexey Khovansky (RUS), 15-8, and placed 31st overall.
Miles Chamley-Watson (Philadelphia, Pa.) automatically qualified for the table of 64 as the #6 seed in the tournament where the two-time Senior World Team member defeated Kyoya Ichikawa (JPN), but lost in the table of 32 to eventual silver medalist Jianfei Ma (CHN), 15-8, to finish 17th.
Jeremy Goldstein (Westport, Conn.) won four of his six bouts in the pools and defeated Alexandru Daniel Diaconu (ROU) in the preliminary tables to qualify for competition on Sunday as the #46 seed. Goldstein won his first bout against Thibault Sarda (FRA), 14-7, and lost his second against Byung-Chul Choi (KOR), 15-8, to place 28th.
Three-time Senior World Team member Kurt Getz (Rye, N.Y.) won five of six matches in the pools to qualify for the table of 64 as the #32 seed, but finished in 48th place after an opening round loss on Sunday Young-Ho Kwon (KOR), 15-4.
Seventeen-year-old Brian Kaneshige (Maplewood, N.J.) advanced to the preliminary tables on Saturday with a 3-3 record in the pools and defeated Daniel Gomez (MEX), 15-11, to qualify for the table of 64 where he lost to eventual gold medalist Valerio Aspromonte (ITA), 15-14, to place 61st.
Top eight and U.S. results are as follows:
Venice Foil Grand Prix
1. Valerio Aspromonte (ITA)
2. Jianfei Ma (CHN)
3. Alexey Cheremisinov (RUS)
3. Luca Simoncelli (ITA)
5. Andrea Cassara (ITA)
6. Giorgio Avola (ITA)
7. Victor Sintes (FRA)
8. Sebastian Bachmann (GER)
