(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – London Olympians Daryl Homer (Bronx, N.Y.) and Jeff Spear (Wynantskill, N.Y.) each advanced to the table of 32 at the Budapest Saber World Cup in Hungary on Saturday.
Homer began the tournament exempt from the preliminary rounds as the 11th seed in the competition, but was nearly upset by George Iancu (ROU) before winning the bout, 15-14. In the table of 32, Homer ended up on the other end of a one-touch bout with a 15-14 loss to Byung Yul Hwang (KOR).
Spear advanced through the pools and preliminary rounds on Friday to qualify as the 48th seed in the table of 64 where he defeated Aliaksei Likhacheuski (BLR), 15-7. Spear lost his next bout to 2013 Senior World Champion Veniamin Reshetnikov (RUS), 15-8.
Eli Dershwitz (Sherborn, Mass.), Ben Igoe (Staten Island, N.Y.) and Peter Souders (Silver Spring, Md.) each qualified for the table of 64.
Dershwitz, a three-time Junior World medalist, lost to Richard Huebers (GER), 15-12, in the table of 64.
His 2014 Senior World teammate, Ben Igoe (Staten Island, N.Y.), lost to Iulian Teodosiu (ROU), 15-13.
Fencing in the table of 64, Souders lost to former Olympic and World Champion Aldo Montano (ITA), 15-7.
On Sunday, Homer, Spear, Dershwitz and Igoe fenced in the team competition.
The Americans lost a nail biter to China, 45-42, in the table of 16, but came back to defeat Great Britain, 45-34.
Team USA lost its next two bouts by slim margins against Belarus, 45-43, and Iran, 45-41, to finish 12th.
Click here to view complete results.
Top eight and U.S. results are as follows, including athletes who placed outside the top 64 on Friday:
Budapest Individual Saber World Cup
1. Bongil Gu (KOR)
2. Aron Szilagi (HUN)
3. Alexey Yakimenko (RUS)
3. Aldo Montano (ITA)
5. Richard Huebers (GER)
6. Andras Szatmari (HUN)
7. Byung Yul Hwang (KOR)
8. Andriy Yagodka (UKR)
20. Daryl Homer (Bronx, N.Y.)
29. Jeff Spear (Wynantskill, N.Y.)
45. Eli Dershwitz (Sherborn, Mass.)
48. Ben Igoe (Staten Island, N.Y.)
59. Peter Souders (Silver Spring, Md.)
75. Evan Prochniak (Hudson, N.H.)
151. Evangelos Efstathioiu (Cambridge, Mass.)
157. Geoffrey Loss (Laguna Beach, Calif.)
167. Marty Williams Jr. (Danbury, Conn.)
191. Thomas Kolasa (Princeton, N.J.)
Budapest Team Saber World Cup
1. Romania
2. Italy
3. Germany
4. Russia
5. Korea
6. China
7. France
8. Ukraine
12. USA
Tag(s): News Daryl Homer Ben Igoe Jeff Spear
