USA Fencing

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – Two-time Olympian Soren Thompson (New York City, N.Y.) traveled from last weekend’s top-32 finish at the Grand Prix in Qatar to Legnano, Italy for the first World Cup of the season.

Thompson, who dropped out of the top-16 in the seedings this week, faced a long day of pools and preliminary bouts on Friday, but advanced to the table of 32 after a 4-2 result in the pools and preliminary table wins over Ricardo Candeis (POR) and Seweryn Brzozowki (POL).

Thompson’s opening bout on Saturday came down to a single touch, but he lost to Daniel Jerent (FRA), 15-14, and finished 44^th overall.

He will return to the strip on Sunday for the team event where the 2012 World Team Champion will compete with Jimmy Moody (Colorado Springs, Colo.), Jason Pryor (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and Jonathan Yergler (Princeton, N.Y.)

As the top-ranked men’s epee team in the world, Team USA has a bye into the table of 16 where they will fence the winner of the match between Japan and Israel.

Top eight and U.S. results are as follows, including athletes who placed outside the top 64 on Friday:

Legnano Individual Epee World Cup
1. Max Heinzer (SUI)
2. Silvio Fernandez (VEN)
3. Jinsun Jung (KOR)
3. Andras Redli (HUN)
5. Ruben Limardo (VEN)
6. Gabor Boczko (HUN)
7. Ivan Trevejo (FRA)
8. Yunlon Jiao (CHN)

44. Soren Thompson (New York City, N.Y.)
69. Jimmy Moody (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
78. Tommi Hurme (San Antonio, Texas)
105. Justin Dion (Fairfield, Conn.)
107. Andras Horanyi (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
118. Alexander Eldeib (Burke, Va.)
133. Jason Pryor (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
145. Alexander Tsinis (Little Neck, N.Y.)
159. Rob Rhea (San Francisco, Calif.)
170. Nicholas Vomero (Centerport, N.Y.)
184. Jonathan Yergler (Princeton, N.J.)
194. Teddy Sherrill (New York City, N.Y.)