USA Fencing

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – Team USA began the second leg of the World Cup circuit with an eighth place finish at the Athens Saber World Cup in Greece on Sunday.

London Olympian Daryl Homer (Bronx, N.Y.) and his teammates Ben Igoe (Staten Island, N.Y.), Andrew Fischl (Huntington, N.Y.) and Aleksander Ochocki (Linden, N.J.) were seeded seventh and earned a bye into the table of 16.

Team USA built a 40-35 lead after the first eight bouts of its opening bout against Ukraine when Homer came in as anchor against Andriy Yagodka (UKR). Homer defeated the Ukrainian, 5-2, and Team USA won the match, 45-37.

In the quarter-finals, the Americans took on Russia – the 2010 and 2011 Senior World Team Champions. Featuring a lineup that included 2012 Olympic medalist Nikolay Kovalev and 2010 Senior World medalist Veniamin Reshetnikov, Russia held a 40-29 lead going into the final bout. Homer scored eight times on Kovalev, but Russia won the match, 45-37, and Team USA went on to fence for a chance at fifth place.  

Unfortunately, a series of upsets earlier in the day would create a pair of match-ups that one would expect to find in the final rounds.

The quarter-final loss pitted Team USA up against Korea – the 2012 Olympic Champions – in the 5^th – 8^th place table.

With Korea up, 25-16, after the fifth bout, Homer outscored 2011 Senior World medalist Bongil Gu, 7-5, to cut Korea’s lead to seven touches. Fencing for the second time in a Senior World Cup team event, Fischl had a breakthrough bout against 2007 Senior World medalist Eunseok Oh. Fischl scored 12 touches and held Oh to just two to give Team USA the lead, 35-32, for the first time in the match. Korea regrouped in the eighth as Gu outscored Igoe, 8-2, and Junghwan Kim defeated Homer, 5-3, to win the match, 45-40.

Fencing for seventh place, Team USA won or tied five of its nine bouts against Romania, but the top-ranked team in the world won the match, 45-39.

Visit www.fencingworldwide.com for complete results.

Top eight results are as follows:

Athens Team Saber World Cup
1. Germany
2. Italy
3. Russia
4. Belarus
5. Hungary
6. Korea
7. Romania
8. USA