USA Fencing

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – London Olympian Daryl Homer (Bronx, N.Y.) opened the men’s saber senior international season with a sixth place finish at the Madrid World Cup in Spain on Saturday.

Homer, who earned three top-eight results on the circuit in 2013, was ranked 12^th in the world at the start of the tournament and was exempt from the preliminary rounds on Friday.

Homer won his table of 64 bout against Bence Gemesi (HUN), 15-7, and held nothing back in the table of 32 as hard hits and quick attacks kept him ahead of 2010 Senior World Champion Woo Young Won (KOR) for a 15-10 victory.

In the table of 16, Homer dominated the first half of his bout against Luigi Samele (ITA), taking an 8-3 lead. Samele cut Homer’s lead to 10-8 in the second and tied Homer at 12, but the American scored three straight touches and finished out the bout with a single light to earn the win, 15-12.

Homer’s quarter-final pitted him against Csanada Gemesi – the Hungarian who won their last match-up at the Senior World Championships in August. The two exchanged touches with Homer holding an 8-7 lead at the break. Gemesi came back at the start of the second period to score three straight touches. Gemesi built on the lead and won the bout, 15-11.

Jeff Spear (Wynantskill, N.Y.), Homer’s teammate at the 2012 Olympic Games, earned a 28^th place finish in Madrid. Fencing his way through the pools and preliminary rounds on Friday, Spear was the 42^nd seed in the table of 64 where he defeated Dmytro Pundyk (UKR), 15-9.

Spear lost his table of 32 bout to 2012 Olympic Team Champion Junghwan Kim (KOR), 15-13.

Andrew Mackiewicz (Westwood, Mass.), Evan Prochniak (Hudson, N.H.) and Eli Dershwitz (Sherborn, Mass.) also competed on Saturday after advancing through the pools and preliminary rounds.

Mackiewicz, a 2012 Cadet World medalist, has fenced at the Absolute Fencing Gear® Korfanty World Cup in Chicago during previous seasons, but Saturday was his debut on the European circuit. Mackiewicz placed 44^th after a 15-12 loss in the table of 64 to Richard Huebers (GER).

A two-time Junior World Team member, Prochniak also was fencing for the first time in a European Senior World Cup after placing in the top 64 in Chicago last year. Prochniak lost to Nicolas Rousset (FRA), 15-3, and finished in 45^th place.

Dershwitz, a two-time Junior World medalist, placed 46^th after a 15-10 loss to Won in the table of 64.

Homer, Spear, Dershwitz and Mackiewicz will fence together in the team event on Sunday.

Click here to view complete results.

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

Madrid Men’s Individual Saber World Cup
1. Junghwan Kim (KOR)
2. Csanada Gemesi (HUN)
3. Tiberiu Dolniceanu (ROU)
3. Diego Occhiuzzi (ITA)
5. Veniamin Reshetnikov (RUS)
6. Daryl Homer (Bronx, N.Y.)
7. Nicolas Limbach (GER)
8. Fernando Casares (ESP)

28. Jeff Spear (Wynantskill, N.Y.)
44. Andrew Mackiewicz (Westwood, Mass.)
45. Evan Prochniak (Hudson, N.H.)
46. Eli Dershwitz (Sherborn, Mass.)
74. Ben Igoe (Staten Island, N.Y.)
91. Peter Souders (Silver Spring, Md.)
99. Jonah Shainberg (Rye, N.Y.)
102. Andrew Fischl (Huntington, N.Y.)
111. Marty Williams (Bridgepoint, Conn.)
138. Evangelos Efstathiou (Cambridge, Mass.)