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Knodt Wins Gold, Tourette Takes Foil Bronze in Bratislava

01/27/2015, 6:30am CST
By Nicole Jomantas

(L-R): Gold medalist Julian Knodt, bronze medalist Geoffrey Tourette and top-eight finishers Michael Li and Sidarth Kumbla. Photo Credit: Forrest MacDougall.


Sixth place women's epee fencer Barbara VanBenthuysen and Coach Sergey Danilov. Photo Credit: Camille Simmons.

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – The U.S. Men’s Foil Team finished the 2014-15 Cadet European Cup circuit on Saturday with a third individual gold medal victory – the most of any nation on the men’s foil circuit.

Julian Knodt (Palo Alto, Calif.) won his first Cadet European title in Bratislava, Slovakia – adding a gold to the bronze he won in September at the event in Gyor Hungary.

Not only did Knodt kept Team USA’s three-for-three gold medal streak alive, but he was joined on the podium by bronze medalist Geoffrey Tourette (Cupertino, Calif.) who took gold in Gyor.

In the pool rounds, Tourette was one of six fencers to go undefeated while Knodt went 5-1.

After a bye into the table of 128, Knodt defeated Domen Davidovic (SLO), 15-6, and won his table of 64 bout against Tamas Meszaros (HUN), 15-13.

Knodt fenced teammate Justin Kang (Fullerton, Calif.) in the table of 32 and took a 15-5 victory to advance to the table of 16 where he defeated Clement Fischer (FRA), 15-11.

Knodt’s next two opponents would be two of his U.S. rivals for berths on the 2015 Cadet World Team: Tourette and Sidarth Kumbla (San Jose, Calif.)

In the quarter-finals, Knodt defeated Kumbla, a bronze medalist at the 2014 Gyor Cadet European Cup, by a score of 15-8.

Tourette also fenced an American teammate in the quarters where he defeated Michael Li (Palo Alto, Calif.), 15-11.

Although Tourette won their last two international matchups in the table of 32 in Montecatini and the semis in Gyor, Knodt took this bout, 15-12, and went on to defeat Alexandre Ediri (FRA), 15-13, to win gold.

Fifteen U.S. fencers also competed in the Bratislava tournament with Barbara VanBenthuysen (The Woodlands, Texas) earning a sixth-place finish.

The top-ranked cadet women’s epee fencer in the nation, VanBenthuysen is fencing in her first season on the international circuit, but made herself one to watch when she won bronze gold in her European debut in Klagenfurt in October.

Seeded seventh after a 6-0 finish in pools, VanBenthuysen earned a bye into the table of 128 where she defeated Merve Ersoy (TUR), 15-9.

VanBenthuysen won her next two bouts against Charlotte Dubuisson (FRA) and Lucrezia Marandola (ITA) by 15-5 and 15-9 scores, respectively.

VanBenthuysen defeated Kristina Yasinskaya (RUS), 15-13, in the table of 16, but finished sixth after a 15-11 loss to Kim Treudt-Goesser (GER) – the No. 2-ranked fencer in the Cadet European standings who went on to win her second gold medal of the season.

On Sunday, the U.S. Men’s Foil Team placed ninth in the team competition.

Samuel Barmann (Barrington, R.I.), William Gaziano (Basking Ridge, N.J.), Sebastian Medloff (Corte Madera, Calif.) and Zachary Hammer (San Mateo Calif.) came into the tournament with a sixth seed, but lost to Ukraine 1, 36-34, in the table of 16.

Barmann anchored the Americans to three straight wins to finish ninth as they defeated Egypt 2, 45-15; Germany, 45-26, and Italy, 45-20.

Click here to view complete results.

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

Bratislava Men’s Individual Foil Cadet European Cup
1. Julian Knodt (Palo Alto, Calif.)

2. Alexandre Ediri (FRA)
3. Benoit Hecher (FRA)
3. Geoffrey Tourette (Cupertino, Calif.)
5. Sidarth Kumbla (San Jose, Calif.)
6. Lambert Massol (FRA)
7. Maksym Haravskyi (UKR)
8. Michael Li (Palo Alto, Calif.)

9. Nick Itkin (Los Angeles, Calif.)
15. Samuel Barmann (Barrington, R.I.)
20. Justin Kang (Fullerton, Calif.)
21. Jack Holmes (Houston, Texas)
57. William Gaziano (Basking Ridge, N.J.)
59. Kenneth Chui (Palo Alto, Calif.)
65. Aiden Ahn (Los Angeles, Calif.)
66. Cameron Allen (Newtown, Pa.)
68. Maxwell Chung (Greenwich, Conn.)
69. Kenji Bravo (San Francisco, Calif.)
95. Sebastian Medloff (Corte Madera, Calif.)
103. Rhishikesh Ranadive (Petaluma, Calif.)
106. McConnell Gou (Saratoga, Calif.)
108. Zachary Hammer (San Mateo Calif.)

Bratislava Men’s Individual Epee Cadet European Cup
1. Kim Treudt-Goesser (GER)
2. King Nagy (HUN)
3. Aurore Favre (SUI)
3. Susan Maria Sica (ITA)
5. Cecilia Forastieri (ITA)
6. Barbara VanBenthuysen (The Woodlands, Texas)
7. Luise Elmer (AUT)
8. Amelie Hanschke (GER)

14. Gigi Vierheller (Houston, Texas)
28. Farrah Lee-Elabd (San Antonio, Texas)
30. Greta Candreva (Katonah, N.Y.)
36. Belinda Mo (Irvine, Calif.)
37. Sancchi Kukadia (Manhasset, N.Y.)
39. Kenyata Plenty (New York, N.Y.)
62. Tatijana Stewart (Ogden, Utah)
65. Huda Aldadah (Peoria, Ill.)
76. Jessica Thow (Spring, Texas)
92. Miriam Grady (Broomfield, Colo.)
123. Meghan O’Reilly (Akron, Ohio)
147. Esther Ruiz (Glendale, Calif.)
196. Luisa Solley (Barrington, R.I.)
218. Camille Simmons (Bellaire, Texas)

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