USA Fencing

(San Francisco, Calif.) – The 2014-15 Senior World Cup season kick off this weekend with the San Francisco Men’s Foil World Cup at Kezar Pavilion.

Nearly 200 of the world’s best foil fencers from more than 35 nations will compete in the three-day tournament that begins on Friday and concludes on Sunday.

Preliminary individual competition will take place on Friday and will be followed by direct elimination and final round action for the top 64 fencers on Saturday. The semifinal and final rounds will take place at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday night. Team competition will take place on Sunday.

Click here for the complete schedule.

Tickets start at $20 per session. Click the following links to purchase: 

• Individual Tickets
• Two-Day Pass
• Three-Day Pass
• Three-Day VIP Pass

The U.S. delegation will feature approximately 30 fencers, including all four members of the squad that placed fourth at the 2012 Olympic Games and won silver at the 2013 Senior World Championships.

For San Francisco natives Gerek Meinhardt and Alexander Massialas, the World Cup will be a rare opportunity to fence in front of a home crowd as U.S. athletes travel to an average of 10 countries each year.

Both Meinhardt, a two-time Olympian who won bronze at the 2010 Senior World Championships, and Massialas, his London Olympic teammate, grew up fencing in San Francisco and competed in regional events at the historic Kezar Pavilion during their youth fencing days.

A graduate student at Notre Dame, Meinhardt is now ranked No. 4 in the world after winning two individual medals on the World Cup circuit last season. Ranked seventh in the world, Massialas is a junior at Stanford who also won two individual World Cup medals this year and placed second behind Meinhardt at the Pan American Championships in June.

Meinhardt and Massialas’s teammates, 2012 Olympians Race Imboden (Brooklyn, N.Y.) and Miles Chamley-Watson (New York City, N.Y.), will be among the top candidates for podium finishes in San Francisco.

Ranked 10th in the world, Imboden finished third at the 2014 Tokyo Grand Prix as part of a 1-2-3 U.S. finish with Meinhardt and Massialas and won the silver medal at the Seoul World Cup in May.

Chamley-Watson made history in 2013 as the first U.S. man to win an individual Senior World Championship title in fencing and took silver that same year with Meinhardt, Massialas and Imboden in the team event.

In the team event, the Americans were ranked No. 1 in the world earlier this year and are hoping to build on a season that included three podium appearances last spring. 

The international field features the top foil fencers in the world, including:

• 2014 Senior World Individual Champion Alexey Cheremisinov (RUS)
• 2013 Senior World Individual Champion Miles Chamley-Watson (New York City, N.Y.)
• 2012 Olympic Individual Champion Sheng Lei (CHN)
• 2014 Senior World Team Champions Enzo Lefort (FRA), Erwann Le Pechoux (FRA), Julien Mertine (FRA) and Vincent Simon (FRA)
• 2013 Senior World and 2012 Olympic Champions Giorgio Avola (ITA), Andrea Baldini (ITA) and Andrea Cassara (ITA)

Click here to view the entrants list.

Team USA’s entrant list is as follows (Note: additional athletes may be added on Thursday afternoon to complete pools):

San Francisco Men’s Foil World Cup U.S. Entrants

Aaron Ahn (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Aiden Ahn (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Max Blitzer (Staten Island, N.Y.)
Matthew Branman (Villanova, Pa.)
Nobuo Bravo (San Francisco, Calif.)
Turner Caldwell (San Francisco, Calif.)
Miles Chamley-Watson (New York City, N.Y.)
Jerry Chang (Mountain View, Calif.)
Raymond Chen (Dallas, Texas)
Kurt Getz (New York City, N.Y.)
Jarred Gou (Saratoga, Calif.)
David Hadler (San Francisco, Calif.)
George Haglund (Califon, N.J.)
Brian Howard (Petaluma, Calif.)
Race Imboden (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
Brian Kaneshige (Maplewood, N.J.)
Axel Kiefer (Lexington, Ky.)
Julian Knodt (Palo Alto, Calif.)
Sidarth Kumbla (San Jose, Calif.)
Michael Li (Palo Alto, Calif.)
Jan Maceczek (Marlboro, N.J.)
Stephen Mageras (Darien, Conn.)
Alexander Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.)
Adam Mathieu (Union City, N.Y.)
Darren Mei (Redwood City, Calif.)
Gerek Meinhardt (San Francisco, Calif.)
Samuel Moelis (Hewlett, N.Y.)
Lucas Orts (Burlingame, Calif.)
James Sands (New York, N.Y.)
Nolen Scruggs (Ozone Park, N.Y.)
Geoffrey Tourette (Cupertino, Calif.)
William Upbin (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
David Willette (Lafayette, Calif.)
Michael Woo (Wayne, N.J.)