USA Fencing

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – After watching her older brother, Alexander Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.) stand on the podium at the last four Junior and Cadet World Championships, 16-year-old Sabrina Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.) will return home with a Cadet World silver medal of her own.

After an undefeated run in the pools and a table of 64 victory on Saturday in Porec, Croatia, Massialas opened competition on Sunday with a bout against Hungarian Kata Kondricz.

Massialas took a 4-1 lead after the first period and gave up just four touches in the second to set the score at 7-3. In the third period, Massialas held a five-touch lead at 11-6 in the final minute. Kondricz scored three more times, but Massialas finished the bout, 12-9.

In the table of 16, Massialas dominated her bout against Martyna Dlugosz (POL). With a 10-6 lead going into the third period, Massialas held Dlugosz to three touches and won the bout, 15-9.

Massialas advanced to the semifinals after a 15-6 victory over Aikaterini-Maria Kontochristopoulou (GRE).

In the semifinals, Massialas met Erica Cipressa – the Italian fencer who 2013 Junior World Team member Sara Taffel (New York City, N.Y.) defeated in the semifinals of the 2012 Cadet Worlds.

Massialas led the bout from the start and held two-touch leads at the end of both the first period (5-3) and the second (8-6). When neither athlete scored a touch during the first minute of the third period, the fencers took a non-combattivity call and the bout went into a final one-minute period.

By the final seconds, Massialas had built a 13-9 lead that Cipressa couldn’t overcome and she finished with a 14-11 victory.

 “I fenced her twice two years ago in Budapest and I knew she did really fast attacks with her arm pulled back, so I knew that I could either counterattack into it, parry four or run away and counterattack. Sara actually fenced her last year and beat her and I just remembered what she told me,” Massialas said.

In the gold medal final, Massialas took a 3-1 early lead, but Hungarian Viktoria Chmel-Mesteri scored nine straight to take a 10-3 lead. During the final minute of the first period, Massialas clawed her way back into the bout to cut the Hungarian’s lead to 13-8. Chmel-Mesteri was given a red card in the final seconds of the bout to put the score at 13-9 and keep Massialas within striking distance of gold.

In the second period, however, Massialas’s deficit proved to be too great as Chmel-Mesteri went on to finish the bout, 15-11.

The silver medal win for Massialas was not only her first podium finish at the Cadet Worlds, but the fifth straight time a U.S. women’s foil fencer has advanced to the gold medal final at this event.

Massialas’s teammate, 15-year-old Morgan Partridge (Swansea, Mass.) finished in 15^th place in her second appearance at the Cadet Worlds.

Partridge, who finished eighth at the Cadet Worlds in 2012, trailed Ayesha Fihosy (GBR), 3-2 with 19 seconds left in the first period of the table of 32. Partridge scored to tie the bout, but Fihosy requested a replay and was awarded the touch to take a 4-2 lead going into the second period. Patridge outscored Fihosy, 9-3, in the second period to earn an 11-8 lead. Although Fihosy scored the first touch in the third period, Partridge scored three straight to come within a touch of ending the bout. Fihosy scored twice more, but Partridge took the win, 15-11.

In the table of 16, two-time Cadet World Team member Gabriela Cecchini (BRA) built an 8-4 lead over Partridge during the first period. The Brazilian controlled the remainder of the bout as her lead over Patridge grew to 13-7 at the end of the second period before closing out the win, 15-8.

In the men’s saber event, 17-year-old Jonah Shainberg (Rye, N.Y.) finished 10^th in his debut at the Cadet Worlds.

Shainberg built an 8-6 lead after the first period of his table of 32 bout against Aleksandr Vasiaev (RUS) and scored the first three touches in the second, but Vasiaev scored four straight to cut Shainberg’s lead to 11-10. Shainberg held off Vasiaev, however, to finish out the win at 15-13.

In the table of 16, Shainberg lost to Artsiom Novikau (BLR), 15-12.

The Belarussian, who also defeated Shainberg’s teammate, Calvin Liang (Phoenix, Ariz.), 15-10, in the table of 32, would go on to win the silver medal.

The early rounds also were held on Sunday for the men’s and women’s epee events with two U.S. men and two women advancing to the table of 32 competition that will be held on Monday and all six Americans fencing on the Cadet World Team for the first time.  

In the men’s epee competition, 17-year-old Gabriel Canaux (Brooklyn, N.Y.) posted a perfect 5-0 record in the pools to earn a #3 seed into the table of 128. After a bye into the table of 64, Canaux dropped his bout to Egyptian Abdelrahman Adel (EGY), 15-9, and finished in 33^rd place at his first Cadet Worlds.

Canaux’s teammates, 16-year-olds Jake Raynis (Chatsworth, Texas) and Ariel Simmons (Bellaire, Texas) finished the pools with 5-1 and 4-1 records, respectively.

Both athletes earned byes into the 64 where Raynis defeated Gweonwoo Lee (KOR), 15-13, and Simmons won his bout over Hanibal Al Awssi (DEN), 15-5.

Raynis will meet Noe Walter (GER) in the table of 32 on Monday and Simmons will fence Italian Federico Vismara.

In the women’s event, 15-year-old Kasia Nixon (Los Angeles, Calif.) won six straight pool bouts to earn a #3 seed in the table of 128.

After a bye into the table of 64, Nixon won her next bout over Hyeonji Park (KOR), 15-12, and will fence Hsin I Wu (TPE) in the table of 32 on Monday.

Ranked sixth in the Cadet European Cup standings this season, 17-year-old Amanda Sirico (Bowie, Md.) entered the Cadet Worlds as one of the event’s favorites, but she struggled in the pools and split her bouts, 3-3.

Although Sirico was the only American to fence in the table of 128, she made her extra bout a quick one with a 15-6 victory over three-time Cadet World Team member Begum Ataker (TUR).

In a rematch of their gold medal final at the Grenoble Cadet European Cup in France last fall, Sirico took this bout as well with a score of 15-13. On Monday, Sirico will fence Vanessa Riedmuller (GER) in the table of 32.

Sixteen-year-old Madeline Kehl (Valencia, Calif.) dropped just one bout in the pools, but she finished 36^th after a 15-14 loss to Maria Zakirchenko (GEO).

The competition schedule on Monday includes both the cadet men’s and women’s epee events as well as preliminary rounds of cadet women’s saber and cadet men’s foil.

Click here for complete results

 

Cadet women's saber and men's foil fencers competing on Monday include:

Cadet Women’s Saber
Sage Palmedo (Portland, Ore.)
Lena Johnson (Peachtree City, Ga.)
Anastasia Ivanoff (Los Angeles, Calif.)

Cadet Men’s Foil
Thomas Dudey (Bellaire, Texas)
Raymond Chen (Dallas, Texas)
Axel Kiefer (Lexington, Ky.)

Click here to watch the action live on the FIE YouTube Channel. 

 

Top eight and U.S. results are as follows, including athletes who placed outside the top 32 on Saturday: 

Cadet Women’s Foil
1. Viktoria Schmel-Mesteri (HUN)
2. Sabrina Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.)
3. Gabriela Cecchini (BRA)
3. Erica Cipressa (ITA)
5. Leandra Behr (GER)
6. Anna Szymczak (POL)
7. Aikaterini-Marie Kontochristopoulou (GRE)
8. Natalya Ardentova (RUS)

15. Morgan Partridge (Swansea, Mass.)
38. Kate Northrop (Bridgewater, N.J.)

Cadet Men’s Saber
1. Konstiantyn Voronov (UKR)
2. Artsiom Vonikau (BLR)
3. Eduard Gert (GER)
3. Marco Lecci (ITA)
5. Eugenio Castello (ITA)
6. Bogdan Platonov (UKR)
7. Oleksandr Karakai (UKR)
8. Vladimir Ruban (RUS)

10. Jonah Shainberg (Rye, N.Y.)
18. Calvin Liang (Phoenix, Ariz.)
37. Eddie Chin (Livingston, N.J.)