USA Fencing

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – For Andras Horanyi (Colorado Springs, Colo.), fencing in the top 16 on the international circuit isn’t a new thing.

The unique part is the weapon in his hand.

A three-time Senior World team member in foil, Horanyi switched to epee and moved to Colorado Springs in 2011 to train with the resident team at the U.S. Olympic Training Center.

Now ranked sixth in the U.S. standings, Horanyi won his first domestic medal within a year, but he struggled on the international circuit and didn’t advance to the second day of competition during his first four events over the last two seasons.

All of that changed on Friday when Horanyi had his breakthrough performance at the Doha Epee Grand Prix in Qatar.

After qualifying with the final seed in the table of 64, Horanyi’s opening bout pitted him against Nikolai Novosjolov (EST) – the two-time Senior World Champion who won his last title in August

Horanyi upset Novosjolov, 15-13, to advance to the table of 32 where he defeated two-time Olympian and U.S. No. 1 Soren Thompson (New York City, N.Y.), 6-3.

Horanyi fell one touch short of the quarter-finals when he lost his next bout, 15-14, to Oleg Sokolov (UZB) and placed 16^th overall.

Alexander Tsinis (Little Neck, N.Y.), a 2013 Senior World Team member, and OTC resident athlete Jimmy Moody (Colorado Springs, Colo.) both advanced to the table of 64 as well.

Tsinis finished 52^nd after a 15-11 loss to 2012 Junior World Champion Sangyoung Park (KOR) who went on to win gold.

Moody lost to 2007 Junior World Champion Alxandre Blaszyck (FRA), 14-13, and finished 57^th.

Click here to view complete results.

Top eight and U.S. results are as follows:

Doha Men’s Epee Grand Prix
1. Sangyoung Park (KOR)
2. Enrico Garozzo (ITA)
3. Anton Avdeev (RUS)
3. Bogdan Nikishin (UKR)
5. Fabian Kauter (SUI)
6. Ulrich Robeiri (FRA)
7. Oleg Sokolov (UZB)
8. Kazuyasu Minobe (JPN)

16. Andras Horanyi (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
29. Soren Thompson (New York City, N.Y.)
52. Alexander Tsinis (Little Neck, N.Y.)
57. Jimmy Moody (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
89. Samuel Freiman (Woodland, Texas)
97. Rob Rhea (Oakland, Calif.)
127. Teddy Sherrill (New York City, N.Y.)