USA Fencing

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – For the first time in history, Team USA had two foil fencers on the top two steps of the podium at a World Cup on Saturday.

London Olympians Alexander Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.) and Race Imboden (Brooklyn, N.Y.) won gold and silver at the Seoul Foil World Cup in Korea and left a trail of the world’s best fencers in their wake.

The wins were the first individual podium finishes of the season for Massialas who won two World Cup medals on the 2013 circuit and Imboden who took gold at the Havana World Cup last May.

A drop in his world ranking meant that Massialas had to fence in the pool rounds on Friday, but he came out with an undefeated record and a 17^th seed in the table of 64 where Massialas defeated Dongsu Kim (KOR), 15-4.

Massialas pulled out a pair of 15-14 wins in the next two rounds against Ryo Miyake (JPN) and world No. 2 Alexey Cheremisinov (RUS) to advance to the quarter-finals.

Meanwhile, Imboden came in as the 10^th seed and followed a 15-10 win over Saverio Schiavone (ITA) in the 64 with a 15-7 victory against 2012 Olympic Champion Sheng Lei (CHN).

In the table of 16, Imboden shut down four-time Senior World Champion Peter Joppich (GER), 15-7.

Massialas and Imboden guaranteed themselves spots on the podium when Massialas defeated 2013 Senior World team medalist Enzo Lefort (FRA), 15-9, and Imboden won his bout against 2008 Olympic silver medalist Yuki Ota (JPN), 15-12.

In the semifinals, Massialas faced Ghislain Perrier – the Brazilian who upset 2012 Olympic Team Champions Valerio Aspromonte (ITA) and Giorgio Avola (ITA) in the previous two rounds. Massialas brought his record against Perrier to 4-0 with a 15-10 victory.

Imboden won his semifinal bout against three-time Olympian Richard Kruse (GBR), 15-12, to set up the all-American gold medal final.

Although Imboden won their last bout in the finals of the 2013 December North American Cup, Massialas earned his first World Cup title with a 15-11 victory over his teammate.

The medals meant leaps in the world rankings for both Imboden and Massialas. Imboden now sits in sixth behind teammates Gerek Meinhardt (San Francisco, Calif.) and Miles Chamley-Watson (New York City, N.Y.) while Massialas climbed to 17^th.

Meinhardt placed 18^th on Saturday after a 15-6 win against Suguru Awaji (JPN) and a 15-11 loss to two-time Junior World Champion Edoardo Luperi (ITA).

Chamley-Watson lost his table of 64 bout against Eli Schenkel (GER), 15-13, and finished in 33^rd place.

On Sunday, upsets abounded in the team event as both the Americans and Italy fell failed to appear on the podium.

Team USA’s eight-tournament podium streak came to an end after a 45-37 loss to Hong Kong in the table of 16 and Italy, the reigning World and Olympic Champions, fell to Brazil, 45-44.

The two top teams in the world would meet in unlikely circumstances in the match for ninth place after Team USA defeated Japan, 45-42, and Canada, 45-26.

In a rematch of the 2013 Senior World Championships final, Team USA rallied to defeat the Italians, 45-32, to finish in ninth place.

Click here to view complete individual results.

Click here to view complete team results.

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

Seoul Individual Foil World Cup
1. Alexander Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.)
2. Race Imboden (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
3. Richard Kruse (GBR)
3. Ghislain Perrier (BRA)
5. Jianfei Ma (CHN)
6. Enzo Lefort (FRA)
7. Giorgio Avola (ITA)
8. Yuki Ota (JPN)

18. Gerek Meinhardt (San Francisco, Calif.)
33. Miles Chamley-Watson (New York City, N.Y.)
69. Matthew Branman (Villanova, Pa.)
119. Forrest MacDougall (Los Angeles, Calif.)
146. Alexander Chiang (Atlanta, Ga.)

Seoul Team Foil World Cup
1. France
2. Russia
3. Germany
4. Poland
5. China
6. Hong Kong
7. Korea
8. Brazil

9. USA