USA Fencing

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – Foil fencer Sabrina Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.) battled through overtime rounds and comebacks to win her second straight silver medal at the Cadet World Championships on Friday while her saber teammate, Karol Metryka (Linden, N.J.), claimed bronze in his World Team debut.

Massialas entered the table of 32 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, as the tournament’s fourth seed and one of just two medalists returning from the 2013 Cadet Worlds.

Massialas opened the competition on Friday with a bout against her teammate, Stefani Deschner (Mechanicsville, Va.), who was ranked seventh in this season’s Cadet European standings.  

Up 5-0 after the first period, Massialas went on to earn a 13-7 victory.

In the table of 16, Massialas trailed Maria Melnikova (RUS), 6-2, after the first period. Massialas cut the Russian’s lead to three touches in the second and received a score when Melnikova was given a red card for covering. Melnikova scored again to take an 8-5 lead at the end of the second period.

Although Melikova was carded for the same offense in the third period, Massialas was still down, 11-7. With just over 30 seconds on the clock, Massialas tied her opponent at 13. Neither athlete scored again and the bout was sent to overtime with Massialas receiving priority.

Massialas hit her opponent during the opening exchange of the sudden death minute, but the touch was called off target. The bout resumed and, with 16 seconds remaining, Massialas picked up the score she needed to win the bout, 14-13.

Massialas’s quarter-final would come down to the wire again when she fenced Karin Miyawaki (JPN), a 17-year-old who fenced at the all three World Championships in 2013 – Senior, Junior and Cadet.

Miyawaki led the bout, 12-10, with one minute left in the final period, but Massialas outscored her opponent, 3-1, to tie the bout at 13 in the final 30 seconds.

Again, the bout went to overtime and Massialas scored first to win the bout, 14-13, after just six seconds.

In the semifinals, Massialas and 2014 European Championships silver medalist Flora Pasztor (HUN) both began aggressively and each athlete had soon scored six touches midway through the first period, but the Hungarian received a score when Massialas was red carded.

Pasztor went on a 7-2 run to grow her lead to 14-8. Massialas fought back and scored seven straight, including one from a red card when the Hungarian was called for covering target, to steal the bout, 15-14.  

In the gold medal final, Massialas found herself down again, this time at 13-11 against Marta Martyanova (RUS), late in the final minute of the third period.

Massialas scored once and tied the bout at 13 after a corps a corps red card was given to the Russian with 10 seconds left in the bout.

Fencing in overtime for third time on Friday, Massialas attacked quickly, but was countered and Martyanova won the bout, 14-13.

The win marks the 13^th Junior or Cadet World medal to be claimed by the Massialas family as Sabrina now holds two Cadet silvers and her older brother, London Olympian Alexander Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.) has won 11.

Massialas’s teammate, Iman Blow (Brooklyn, N.Y.) began the table of 32 as the tournament’s second seed and had hopes of earning a podium finish at her first Cadet Worlds.

Blow needed just one period to win her opening bout, 15-6, over Canadian Ariane Bilodeau, but lost in the table of 16 to Martyanova and finished in 10^th place.

While Massialas’s bouts kept fans on the edge of their seats all day, saber fencer Metryka seemed nothing but calm as he picked his opponents off one after another.

Seeded third, Metryka dominated his table of 32 bout against Pietro Jose Di Martino (ARG), 15-2, and gave up the lead just once in his 15-10 victory over Dario Cavaliere (ITA).

Even in the quarter-finals, Metryka seemed unfazed by the knowledge that he was one win away from a medal and he replied to every deficit against Dongju Kim (KOR) with touches of his own.

Kim needed one touch to close out the first period with an 8-5 lead, but it was Metryka who scored three to hold an 8-7 advantage at the start of the second period. Even when the Korean staged a comeback at the end of the bout to cut Metryka’s lead to one at 14-13, the first-time Cadet World Team member put up a single light to win the bout, 15-13.  

In the semifinals, Metryka met his match in Marios Giakoumatos (GRE) who outscored Metryka, 8-2, in the first period.

Metryka put five touches on the board in the second, but Giakoumatos won the bout, 15-7.

Metryka’s teammate, Ben Natanzon (Manalapan, N.J.), faced little challenge from either of his first two opponents on Friday as he defeated Kanisorn Pangmoon (THA) and Bandar Alshamlan (KUW) by 15-5 and 15-4 scores, respectively, to advance to the quarter-finals.

In the quarters, it was Konstantin Lokhanov (RUS) who controlled the bout with an 8-1 lead at the break.

The Russian, who is ranked second in the Cadet European standings, swapped touches with Natanzon to take the score to 14-7. Natanzon rattled off four straight touches, but Lokhanov took the final touch for a 15-11 victory, leaving Natanzon with a sixth-place result.

Two-time Cadet World Team member Calvin Liang (Chandler, Ariz.) came back from a 14-11 deficit in the table of 32 to tie his bout at 14, but two-time Cadet European medalist Hugo Soler (FRA) scored the last touch and won the bout, 15-14.

In the women’s epee preliminary rounds, two-time Cadet World Team member Kasia Nixon (Los Angeles, Calif.) established herself as a front-runner for a medal as she went undefeated in the pools to earn the second seed in the direct elimination rounds.

Nixon took an early lead in her table of 64 bout against Xue Zhang (CHN) at 5-0 and finished with five straight touches for a 15-7 victory.

On Saturday, Nixon’s opening bout will be against Alexandra Predescu – the Romanian who defeated Nixon in the quarter-finals of the Klagenfurt Cadet European Cup last fall.

First-time team members Charlene Liu (Bridgewater, N.J.) and Gigi Vierheller (Houston, Texas) each got off to a good start as well with Liu finishing 5-1 in the pools and Vierheller going 4-2.

In the table of 64, Liu trailed Cindy Gao (CAN), 6-5, after the first period, but went on a 4-1 run to finish the second period at 12-9. Liu outscored Gao, 3-2, in the third to win the bout, 15-11.

The win moves Liu into the table of 32 where her opponent will be Kim Treudt-Goesser (GER).

Vierheller controlled her table of 64 bout against Natalya Stepanyan (UKR), giving up just three single touches as she won the bout, 15-7.

In the table of 32, Vierheller will face third seed Ladanyi Nelli (HUN).

Justin Yoo (La Verne, Calif.) dominated the men’s epee pools where he gave up just eight touches out of his six victories to earn the top seed in the direct elimination tables.

Yoo defeated Nagurnyi Iaroslav (UKR) and will fence Rico Braun (GER), the reigning Cadet European Champion, in the table of 32.

Charlie Horowitz (Los Angeles, Calif.) split his pool bouts, 3-3, and needed two wins to advance to the second day of competition.

After a 15-11 victory over Alexey Blinnikov (RUS) in the table of 128, Horowitz held off a late comeback by Shinkai Kawakita (JPN) to win the bout, 15-13.

Horowitz will fence Kei Hsu Albert Chien (HKG) in the table of 32.

Joshua Cole (Chappaqua, N.Y.) had a solid start to the day when he finished the pools at 4-1 and won his table of 128 bout against Matic Dokl (SVK), 15-10.

Cole lost his next bout against Doki’s teammate, Jan Cipar, by a score of 15-7, and finished 39^th.

Competition will continue on Saturday with the final rounds of the men’s and women’s epee events and the preliminary rounds of men’s foil and women’s saber.

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

Cadet Women’s Foil
1. Marta Martyanova (RUS)
2. Sabrina Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.)
3. Flora Pasztor (HUN)
3. Claudia Borella
5. Anna Szymczak (POL)
6. Meredith Guillaume (FRA)
7. Eszter Kalman (HUN)
8. Karin Miyawaki (JPN)

10. Iman Blow (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
24. Stefani Deschner (Mechanicsville, Va.)

Cadet Men’s Saber
1. Ivan Ilyin (RUS)
2. Marios Giakoumatos (GRE)
3. Karol Metryka (Linden, N.J.)
3. Konstantin Lokhanov (RUS)
5. Tudor Cucu (ROU)
6. Ben Natanzon (Manalapan, N.J.)
7. Dongju Kim (KOR)
8. Nurlan Kassymov (KAZ)

23. Calvin Liang (Chandler, Ariz.)