USA Fencing

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – It was at the Paris World Cup a year ago that the U.S. Men’s Foil Team began what has come to be known as “the streak.”

For six straight international tournaments, Team USA stood on the podium as they medaled at four straight World Cups as well as the Pan American Championships and, finally, the Senior Worlds in August.

Ranked No. 1 in the world, Team USA returned to Paris this weekend where the Americans won their seventh straight medal on Sunday – a bronze in front of a packed house at the world famous Stade Coubertin.

Following the bronze medal win in the individual competition by London Olympian Gerek Meinhardt (San Francisco, Calif.), he joined with teammates Miles Chamley-Watson (New York City, N.Y.), Alexander Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.) and Race Imboden (Brooklyn, N.Y.) in the team competition.

Seeded first in the tournament, Team USA defeated Hong Kong, 45-18, in the table of 16 and China, the 2010 and 2011 Senior World Champions, by a score of 45-33.

In the semifinals, the Americans fenced the French team in front of its home crowd. After losses to Team USA at the 2012 Olympic Games and 2013 Senior World Championships, the French squad came to the strip ready for revenge.

Although Team USA trailed France, 40-29, after eight bouts, Massialas was set to fight back in the final bout against three-time Olympian Erwan Le Pechoux.

Le Pechoux outscored Massialas, 4-3, early in the bout and needed just one more touch to finish the win for France, but Massialas scored eight straight to cut France’s lead to 44-40. It was Le Pechoux who scored the next touch, however, to give France the 45-40 victory.

In the bronze medal final, Team USA won or tied six of their first eight bouts against Russia – the No. 3 team in the world.

With a 40-25 lead going into the final bout, Massialas held off fourth-ranked Alexey Cheremisinov to finish the match with a 45-30 win for Team USA.

Click here to view complete results.

Top eight results are as follows:

Paris Team Foil World Cup
1. Italy
2. France
3. USA
4. Russia
5. China
6. Japan
7. Korea
8. Egypt