USA Fencing

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – The U.S. Men’s Foil Team finished fifth at the first World Cup of the Olympic qualifying season on Sunday.

The squad of London Olympians Race Imboden (Brooklyn, N.Y.), Miles Chamley-Watson (New York City, N.Y.), Gerek Meinhardt (San Francisco, Calif.) and Alexander Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.) came in as the fourth seed in the event and earned a 45-25 win over Ukraine after a bye into the table of 16.

In the quarter-finals, Team USA took on China, the 2014 Senior World silver medalists, but lost the match, 45-41.

Team USA regrouped from the loss to defeat Germany, the 2012 Olympic bronze medalists, by a score of 45-40 and Japan, 45-37.

On Saturday, all four fencers competed in the table of 64 where Imboden earned Team USA’s best result with an 18th place finish.

Ranked No. 2 in the world, Imboden defeated Roman Kuts (RUS), 15-9, in the table of 64. After six straight top-eight finishes on the World Cup circuit, Imboden lost to Vincent Simon (FRA), 15-7, and finished in 18th place.

Like Imboden, Meinhardt and Massialas were both exempt from the pool rounds due to their top-16 world rankings.

Meinhardt was outtouched in the table of 64 by Alessio Foconi (ITA) while Massialas lost to 2012 Olympic Team Champion Giorgio Avola (ITA), 15-12.

Both Foconi and Avola went on to place in the top eight.

Chamley-Watson finished the pool rounds with a perfect, 6-0, and took the 20th seed in the table of 64, but lost to Jean-Paul Tony Helissey (FRA), 15-12.

Click here to view complete individual results.

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

St. Petersburg Men’s Individual Foil World Cup
1. Dmitry Rigin (RUS)
2. Andrea Cassara (ITA)
3. Daniele Garozzo (ITA)
3. Vincent Simon (FRA)
5. Erwan Le Pechoux (FRA)
6. Maor Hatoel (ISR)
7. Giorgio Avola (ITA)
8. Alessio Foconi (ITA)

18. Race Imboden (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
33. Gerek Meinhardt (San Francisco, Calif.)
34. Alex Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.)
39. Miles Chamley-Watson (New York City)
73. Brian Kaneshige (Maplewood, N.J.)
82. David Willette (Lafayette, Calif.)
88. Nobuo Bravo (San Francisco, Calif.)
121. Jason Chang (Mountain View, Calif.)
183. Christopher Saulys (Metuchen, N.J.)

St. Petersburg Men’s Foil Team World Cup
1. Russia
2. China
3. Italy
4. France
5. USA
6. Japan
7. Germany
8. Korea