USA Fencing

(Moscow, Russia) – Both the U.S. Men’s and Women’s Foil Teams placed sixth at the Senior World Championships on Sunday.

The U.S. Men’s Foil Team came in as the 2013 Senior World silver medalists and defeated Brazil, the 2015 Pan Am silver medalists, by a score of 45-27 in the table of 16 on Saturday. On Sunday, Team USA fenced Italy – the 2014 Senior World Champions in the quarter-finals.

The Americans kept the match close, but Italy held a 40-35 lead by the end of the eighth bout. In the anchor bout Alexander Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.) fenced 2012 Olympic Team Champion Andrea Baldini following Massialas’s silver medal win in the individual event on Thursday.

Baldini finished the match for Italy at 45-37 and Italy went on to take the gold.

In the 5th – 8th place table, Team USA won or tied six of the first eight bouts Japan with World No. 1 Imboden scoring 15 of the first 40 touches and 2013 Senior World Champion Miles Chamley-Watson (New York City) and Race Imboden (Brooklyn, N.Y.) picking up 17 as well. Massialas fenced 2008 Olympic silver medalist Yuki Ota (JPN) in the anchor bout which would be a rematch of their gold medal final in the individual event where Ota defeated Massialas to win the Senior World title on Thursday. In this meetup, Massialas won their bout, 5-4, and gave the Americans a 45-36 win.

Team USA would fence Great Britain for fifth place as 2015 Senior World bronze medalist Gerek Meinhardt (San Francisco, Calif.) and Imboden split scores with their opponents at 5-5 in the seventh and eighth bouts. Massialas would fence James-Andrew David (GBR), his training partner at the Massialas Foundation, in the anchor leg. Up, 38-37, at the start of the bout, Davis took the victory for Great Britain by a 45-42 score.

In the women’s team foil event, Team USA defeated Mexico, 45-27, in the table of 16 on Saturday to qualify for the quarter-finals.

On Sunday, the team of London Olympians Lee Kiefer (Lexington, Ky.), Nzingha Prescod (Brooklyn, N.Y.) and Nicole Ross (New York City, N.Y.) and three-time Senior World Team member Margaret Lu (Greenwich, Conn.) drew Hungary in the quarter-finals on Sunday.

Hungary led the match, 15-11, after the third period when Kiefer came in and scored 13 touches on Gabriella Varga to give Team USA a 24-22 lead. By the end of the eighth bout, however, the Americans’ lead had been cut to one and Kiefer struggled against four-time Senior World individual medalist Aida Mohamed who scored 13 touches to give Hungary the match, 45-35.

Team USA moved on to the fifth bout against Japan where the Americans built a 40-31 lead after the eighth bout, including an 8-4 run by Lu against Karin Miyawaki and a 9-4 eighth bout by Ross against Haruka Yanaoka. In the anchor bout, Kiefer defeated Shiho Nishioka, 5-2, to secure the win for Team USA at 45-33.

In the final match against Korea, Team USA held a one-touch lead at 38-37 going into the anchor bout between Ross and Seung Min Lim who tied the score at 40 with 18 seconds on the clock to send the match into overtime.

Lim scored first and Korea won the bout, 41-40.

Click here to view complete results.

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

Men’s Team Foil Senior World Championships
1. Italy
2. Russia
3. China
4. France
5. Great Britain
6. USA
7. Japan
8. Korea

Women’s Team Foil Senior World Championships
1. Italy
2. Russia
3. France
4. Hungary
5. Korea
6. USA
7. Japan
8. Poland