USA Fencing

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – Daryl Homer (Bronx, N.Y.) continued the momentum he built after a sixth-place finish at the London Olympic Games with a sixth-place result at the Plovdiv Saber Grand Prix on Sunday.

Seeded fourth in the first major senior men’s saber international event after the Games, Homer was exempt from the preliminary rounds on Saturday and qualified directly into the table of 64.

Unfortunately, Homer’s opening bout was against his 2011 Senior World Teammate Ben Igoe (Staten Island, N.Y.), but Homer remained unfazed and won the bout, 15-5.

After a 15-4 win over Russian Maxim Botezatu, Homer met his London teammate Jeff Spear (Wynantskill, N.Y.) in the table of 16.

Spear, who was fencing in the table of 16 for the first time at a senior European tournament, kept the bout close, but Homer produced a 15-11 win and Spear earned a career-high 12^th place finish.

Fencing in his first Grand Prix quarter-final, Homer missed the medal rounds after a 15-12 loss to Kamil Ibragimov (RUS) who went on to earn the gold medal.

Although there was much speculation that Tim Morehouse (New York City, N.Y.) would follow his eighth-place result in London with a retirement announcement, Morehouse was back on the international scene as the seventh seed in the tournament.

Like Spear and Homer, Morehouse was exempt from the preliminary rounds on Saturday and opened with a 15-11 win over Nikolai Nikolic (AUT).

In the table of 32, Morehouse outscored Aleksander Ochocki (Linden, N.Y.), 15-6. Ochocki, who trains with Morehouse and Homer at the Manhattan Fencing Center, was fencing in his first international event since 2002, and earned a 23^rd place result.

Morehouse lost his next bout to Luigi Samele (ITA), 15-12, and finished in 10^th place.

Eli Dershwitz (Sherborn, Mass.), the reigning Junior World silver medalist, advanced to the table of 64 after the pool and preliminary rounds, but lost, 15-10, to Luigi Miracco (ITA) and finished 46^th overall.

Top eight and U.S. results are as follows, including athletes who did not advance out of the preliminary rounds on Saturday:

Plovdiv Saber Grand Prix
1. Kamil Ibragimov (RUS)
2. Tiberiu DOlniceanu (ROU)
3. Luigi Samele (ITA)
3. Benedikt Wagner (GER)
5. Diego Occhiuzzi (ITA)
6. Daryl Homer (Bronx, N.Y.)
7. Andriy Yagodka (UKR)
8. Julian Medard (FRA)

10. Tim Morehouse (New York City, N.Y.)
12. Jeff Spear (Wynantskill, N.Y.)
23. Aleksander Ochocki (Linden, N.J.)
46. Eli Dershwitz (Sherborn, Mass.)
62. Ben Igoe (Staten Island, N.Y.)
74. Adrian Bak (Franklin Lakes, N.J.)
87. Will Spear (Wynantskill, N.Y.)