USA Fencing

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – The U.S. Men’s Foil Team continued its most successful season ever with a silver medal finish at the Seoul World Cup on Sunday.

The squad, which won its first ever World Cup medal in Paris in January and placed second in La Coruna in February, claimed its third straight podium finish in Korea.

The Americans fenced Belarus in the table of 16 and 2012 Olympians Alexander Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.), Race Imboden (Brooklyn, N.Y.) and Gerek Meinhardt (San Francisco, Calif.) won the match, 45-25.

London Olympian Miles Chamley-Watson (Philadelphia, Pa.), who finished seventh in the individual event on Saturday, sat out the opening match, but joined Massialas and Imboden for the quarter-finals against Korea. The Americans won or tied eight of the nine bouts to take a 45-36 victory over the Koreans in front of their home crowd.

In the semifinals, Massialas, Meinhardt and Imboden faced a young Chinese team that upset third-ranked Germany in the previous round. Team USA won or tied all nine bouts to finish the match, 45-28, and set up a gold medal final between Team USA and Italy.

The gold medal final would be the second time Team USA has faced the reigning Olympic Champions  this season. Italy took a 10-8 lead after the first two bouts, but Imboden outscored 2011 Senior World silver medalist Valerio Aspromonte, 7-3, to give the Americans a 15-13 lead.

Chamley-Watson held 2011 Senior World Champion Andrea Cassara to a single touch as he won the fourth bout, 5-1.

Massialas entered the fifth bout with a 20-14 lead, but the Italians subbed in 2011 Senior World bronze medalist Giorgio Avola who cut Team USA’s lead to a touch at 25-24.

Imboden made up ground for the Americans when he outscored 2009 Senior World Champion Andrea Baldini, 5-1, to set the score at 30-25 for Team USA.

Chamley-Watson finished his final bout of the day with a 5-4 victory over Avola and a total of 15 touches against the Italians.

Cassara regrouped in the eighth bout against Imboden to give Italy a 40-38 lead and Baldini won the anchor bout against Massialas to finish the match, 45-39.

Team USA’s silver medal finish holds the Americans in a #2 world ranking with one team World Cup remaining this season – the Havana World Cup in Cuba next month.

“We were in control of the match but, the Italians got in front and they were able to close things out. Still, we have been consistently strong all season,” said Coach Greg Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.) “I have always felt that this group of foil fencers could win the World Championship and Olympic gold. My goal from the start of this quad was to set the winning tone with the guys and that started with our first ever team win in Paris. In each of the three team events that we competed in this season, we have been in the gold medal match each time. Everyone on the men’s foil team knows that the finish line this season will be in Budapest at the World Championships”

Click here to view complete results.

Top eight results are as follows:

Seoul Team Foil World Cup
1. Italy
2. USA
3. France
4. China
5. Russia
6. Germany
7. Korea
8. Ukraine