USA Fencing

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – The U.S. Men’s Foil Team kept its podium streak alive on Sunday with an eighth straight international medal – a bronze at the La Coruna World Cup in Spain.

Seeded second in the tournament, Team USA earned a bye into the table of 16 where the Americans opened with a 45-21 win over Hong Kong.

In the quarter-finals, Team USA was down five touches to China, 40-35, going into the final bout between London Olympian Alexander Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.) and Jianfei Ma who won the individual competition on Saturday.

With China two touches away from the win, Massialas scored seven straight to take a 45-43 victory for Team USA.

In the semifinals, Russia held a 25-20 lead after the first five bouts, but Massialas put Team USA ahead by a touch when he outscored Dmitry Rigin, 10-4.

The next bout came down to the wire, but reigning Senior World Champion Miles Chamley-Watson (New York City, N.Y.) ran out of time before he could catch 2012 Junior World Champion Timur Safin who returned the lead to Russia, 34-32.

Six-time Junior World medalist Renal Ganeev outscored London Olympian Race Imboden (Brooklyn, N.Y.), 6-3, in the eighth bout which gave Russia a 40-35 advantage heading into the final bout.

Massialas outscored world No. 3 Alexey Cheremisinov, 6-5, but Russia held onto the win, 45-41.

Team USA fenced Germany, the 2012 Olympic bronze medalists, in the bronze medal final.

Although the Germans led the bout early, two-time Olympian Gerek Meinhardt (San Francisco, Calif.) put Team USA ahead, 35-33, after the seventh bout.

Imboden held the lead with a 5-5 tie against Sebastian Bachmann in the eighth and Massialas outscored four-time Senior World Champion Peter Joppich, 5-2, to finish the match with a 45-40 victory for Team USA.

In the individual competition, Meinhardt earned Team USA’s best finish with a ninth-place result.

The top seed in the tournament, Meinhardt defeated Francesco Trani (ITA), 14-12, in the table of 64 and Taegyu Ha (HKG), 15-12, in the 32.

Meinhardt lost his table of 16 bout to Ma, 15-7.

Imboden and Massialas each advanced to the table of 32 where Imboden finished 18^th and Massialas was 19^th.

Imboden won his first direct elimination bout, 15-12, against Maor Hatoel (ISR), but lost to Vincent Simon (FRA), 15-13, in the 32.

After a 15-7 win over Maxime Pauty (FRA), Massialas lost in the table of 32 to 2013 Pan Am medalist Maximillien Van Haaster (CAN), 15-12.

Chamley-Watson lost to Tarek Ayad (EGY), 15-7, in the table of 64 and finished in 34^th place.

Click here to view complete results.

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

La Coruna Individual Foil World Cup
1. Jianfei Ma (CHN)
2. Alexander Choupenitch (CZE)
3. Yuki Ota (JPN)
3. Young Ki Son (KOR)
5. Jun Heo (KOR)
6. Jialuo Shi (CHN)
7. Dmitry Rigin (RUS)
8. Vincent Simon (FRA)

9. Gerek Meinhardt (San Francisco, Calif.)
18. Race Imboden (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
19. Alexander Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.)
34. Miles Chamley-Watson (New York City, N.Y.)

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