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Daryl Homer Places Seventh at Plovdiv Saber Grand Prix

05/29/2014, 5:30pm CDT
By Nicole Jomantas

Daryl Homer. Photo Credit: U.S. Olympic Committee.

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – London Olympian Daryl Homer (Bronx, N.Y.) earned his third top-eight results of the season when he placed seventh at the Plovdiv Saber Grand Prix on Sunday in Bulgaria.

Seeded eighth in the tournament, Homer defeated Christophe Buisson (FRA), 15-12, in the table of 64 and Valeriy Sulkovskiy (RUS), 15-10, in the 32.

In the table of 32, Homer defeated 2010 Senior World Champion Woo Young Won (KOR), 15-10, for the second time this year.

Homer met World No. 1 Tiberiu Dolniceanu (ROU) in the quarter-finals and started the bout with a 2-0 lead. Dolniceanu took the next four touches, but Homer came back to finish the first period with an 8-5 lead. Dolniceanu scored five straight in the opening exchanges at the start of the second period.

After Homer went on a 4-1 run to take a 12-11 lead, he received a yellow card for starting early which meant both fencers had yellow cards as Dolniceanu picked up one earlier in the period. With Homer up, 14-13, Dolniceanu scored again to tie the bout at 14. On the final action, Homer scored, but the touch was annulled and Homer was carded for a crossover and Dolniceanu won the bout, 15-14.

Three of Homer’s teammates advanced to the table of 32.

London Olympian Jeff Spear (Wynantskill, N.Y.) won his table of 32 bout over Kenta Tokunan (JPN), 15-13. In the table of 16, Spear lost to 2004 Olympic and 2011 Senior World Champion Aldo Montano (ITA), 15-10.

Geoffrey Loss (Laguna Beach, Calif.), a 2014 Junior World team bronze medalist, edged Xin Fang (CHN), 15-14, to advance to the table of 32 for the first time on the senior level. In the next round, Loss was outtouched by Sandro Bazadze (GEO), 15-13.

Three-time Junior World medalist Eli Dershwitz (Sherborn, Mass.) earned his second win of the season over 2014 Junior World Champion Luca Curatoli (ITA), 15-14, in the table of 64, but lost in the table of 32 to Alin Badea (ROU), 15-12.

Going into the weekend, Homer, Spear and Dershwitz had already secured their positions on the 2014 Senior World Team, but one spot remained open when the athletes arrived in Plovdiv which served as the final qualifying tournament for the U.S. Team.

Following his top-64 result in Warsaw two weeks ago, Ben Igoe (Staten Island, N.Y.) moved up to fourth in the national team standings. Igoe was eliminated in the pools, however, and Andrew Fischl (Huntington, N.Y.) qualified for the table second day of competition where he would need a top-16 result to pass Igoe in the standings.

In the table of 64, Fischl lost to Valeriy Sulkovskiy (RUS), 15-8, and remained sixth in the point standings.

Click here to view complete results.

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

Plovdiv Saber Grand Prix
1. Enrico Berre (ITA)
2. Diego Occhiuzzi (ITA)
3. Junghwan Kim (KOR)
3. Tiberiu Dolniceanu (ROU)
5. Bongil Gu (KOR)
6. Aldo Montano (ITA)
7. Daryl Homer (Bronx, N.Y.)
8. Sandro Bazadze (GEO)

21. Jeff Spear (Wynantskill, N.Y.)
31. Geoffrey Loss (Laguna Beach, Calif.)
32. Eli Dershwitz (Sherborn, Mass.)
46. Andrew Fischl (Huntington, N.Y.)
79. Jonathan Fitzgerald (East Brunswick, N.J.)
86. Ameen Borojerdi (Plantation, Fla.)
100. Ben Igoe (Staten Island, N.Y.) 

Tag(s): News  Eli Dershwitz  Daryl Homer  Ben Igoe