USA Fencing

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – Team USA won four gold medals on the penultimate day of the Veteran World Championships, sweeping all three women’s saber titles and taking the women’s team foil gold medal in Limoges, France.

For the first time in history, the American women claimed all three women’s saber gold medals with Lydia Mazorol (Simi Valley, Calif.) winning her first 50-59 title and teammates Jane Eyre (Swedesboro, N.J.) and Ellen O’Leary (Decatur, Ga.) repeating as gold medalist in the 60-69 and +70 events, respectively.

Mazorol, a two-time individual Veteran World medalist, claimed the only women’s saber shutout of the tournament in the table of 32 when she went 10-0 against Belinda Gonzalez (ESP) and qualified for the quarter-finals with a 10-7 win over Anne Cerboni Bousquet (FRA).

In her next bout, Mazorol fenced Claudia Bandieri (ITA) in a rematch of their 2014 gold medal final. While Bandieri won gold last year, Mazorol won their quarter-final, 10-7, in Limoges.

Mazorol edged Galina Safronova (RUS), 10-9, in the semifinals and controlled her final bout against Gabriella Lionetti (ITA) to win the gold by a 10-5 score.

 All three of Mazorol’s teammates in the 50-59 event earned top-16 finishes.

Chaz Smith (Placerville, Calif.), a silver medalist in this event in 2012, won her table of 32 bout against Birgit Noll (GER), 10-3, but lost to Safronova, 10-5, in the table of 16. 

After a 10-4 win against Judit Gyiurkan (HUN), three-time Veteran World Team member Robin Pernice (Carlisle, Mass.) missed the quarters by a touch with a 10-9 loss to Bandieri.

Donna Pepe (Oxford, Conn.) came to France as the reigning National Champion to fence at her first Vet Worlds and opened with a 10-3 win against Rosangela Topatigh (ITA). In the 16, Pepe lost to three-time Vet World Champion Jane Hutchison (GBR), 10-5.

In the 60-69 event, Eyre continued her dominance on the world stage, winning her fifth individual World title and third in a row since moving up to her new age group in 2013.

Eyre finished the pools undefeated and was tied with teammate Jennette Starks-Faulkner (Middletown, Conn.) for the top seed in the DE rounds.

Eyre earned a bye into the 16 where she defeated Maria Teresa Sanchez (ESP), 10-6, to advance to the quarters as one of three members of Team USA to be guaranteed top-eight results.

Jude Offerle (Winnetka, Ill.), a 2012 Vet World medalist in foil, defeated Tatiana Goryunova (RUS), 10-6, in the table of 16 and Jeannine Bender (Arlington, Va.) came within striking distance of a third career medal when she defeated three-time Vet World medalist Kaoru Amari (JPN), 10-6, to advance to the eight.

Starks-Faulkner, the 2014 Vet World Champion in foil and a silver medalist in saber, lost her table of 16 bout, 10-9, to 2004 Vet World Champion Karin Ansen (GER).

In the quarters, Eyre and Offerle each posted commanding victories as Eyre defeated three-time Vet World Champion Marguerite Langton (RSA), 10-3, and Offerle almost shut out Yvonne Walls (GBR) with a 10-1 win.

Bender missed the podium by two touches when she lost her bout to two-time Vet World medalist Vivien Frith (GBR), 10-8.

Eyre and Offerle would fence each other in the semis where Eyre took the win by a 10-4 margin and Offerle finished with her first Vet World individual saber medal.

Eyre went on to fence Frith in the finals and gave up just three touches en route to winning gold.   

Since moving up to the +70 event in 2012, O’Leary has fenced in the finals every year and 2015 would be no exception.

Seeded third out of pools, O’Leary defeated Janka Wohlfarth (GER), 10-4, in the table of 16 and Annegret Hamann (GER), 10-6, in the quarters.

O’Leary kept Brigitte Martin (FRA) from winning her first gold when she defeated the eight-time individual medalist, 10-8, in the semis. In the finals, O’Leary defeated six-time Vet World Champion Brigitte Greunke (GER) by a 10-8 score.

In the earlier rounds, Greunke also faced two of O’Leary’s teammates. Greunke defeated two-time Vet World Team member Diane Hiatt (Sparks, Nev.), the event’s top seed, by a 10-7 score in the quarters and won her opening bout, 10-4, over two-time Vet World Team member Sally Higgins (Tinton Falls, Nev.)

Catherine Radle (Atlanta, Ga.) advanced to the table of 16, but lost to Hamann, 10-3.

Led by Anne-Marie Walters (Parkland, Fla.) after winning the 60-69 foil title, the U.S. Women’s Foil Team also included +70 bronze medalist Ruth Dodge (Casa Grande, Ariz.), 50-59 fencers Ursula Szpak (Trophy Club, Texas) and Lynn Botelho (Indiana, Pa.) and Starks-Faulkner who competed in both the team event and her 60-69 saber event on the same day.

The Americans won three straight pool bouts with victories against Russia, 24-17; Finland, 30-27; and Great Britain, 30-22.

With an undefeated record, Team USA was seeded second in the quarters and soundly defeated Japan, 30-13. The Americans defeated Russia for a second time, posting a 23-15 win in the semis before ending the day with a 30-25 win against France to take gold.

In keeping with tradition, the men’s 50-59 epee competition would be the largest of the tournament with 77 fencers competing for a chance at gold.

Walter Dragonetti (Elyria, Ohio), a 2009 Vet World Champion, earned Team USA’s best result with a 12th place finish in the field.

After a bye into the table of 64, Dragonetti defeated teammate Eli Delgado (Burleson, Texas), 10-3, and advanced to the 16 after a 5-4 win against Karsten Hustig (GER). Dragonetti would miss the quarters by a touch when he lost his next bout to Sergey Simovskikh (RUS), 9-8.

First-time team member Benoit Pouliquen (Eden Prairie, Minn.) also earned a bye into the 64 where he defeated Karoly Szalay (HUN), 10-6. Pouliquen fenced a cautious table of 32 bout against Kazbek Abduragimov, but was eliminated after the Russian came away with a 7-3 win.

Mark Segal (Upland, Calif.), also a first-time team member, lost in the table of 64 to Nicolas Defer (BEL), 10-6.

Click here to view complete results.

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

Veteran World Championships Men’s 50-59 Epee
1. Luca Magni (ITA)
2. Rezk Nawar (NED)
3. Roberto Codon Miravalles (ESP)
3. Sergey Simovskikh (RUS)
5. Jan Tivenus (SWE)
6. Marco Longo (GER)
7. Christian Dousse (SUI)
8. Kazbek Abduragimov (RUS)

12. Walter Dragonetti (Elyria, Ohio)
20. Benoit Pouliquen (Eden Prairie, Minn.)
50. Eli Delgado (Burleson, Texas)
51. Mark Segal (Upland, Calif.)

Veteran World Championships Women’s 50-59 Saber
1. Lydia Mazorol (Simi Valley, Calif.)
2. Gabriella Lionetti (ITA)
3. Friederike Janshen (GER)
3. Galina Safronova (RUS)
5. Jane Mutchison (GBR)
6. Claudia Bandieri (ITA)
7. Min Yi Du (AUS)
8. Anne Laure Barbier (FRA)

10. Chaz Smith (Placerville, Calif.)
13. Robin Pernice (Carlisle, Mass.)
14. Donna Pepe (Oxford, Conn.)

Veteran World Championships Women’s 60-69 Saber
1. Jane Eyre (Swedesboro, N.J.)
2. Vivien Ena Frith (GBR)
3. Corinne Aubailly (FRA)
3. Jude Offerle (Winnetka, Ill.)
5. Yvonne Walls (GBR)
6. Jeannine Bender (Arlington, Va.)
7. Marguerite Langton (RSA)
8. Karin Jansen (GER)

9. Jennette Starks-Faulkner (Middletown, Conn.)

Veteran World Championships Women’s +70 Saber
1. Ellen O’Leary (Decatur, Ga.)
2. Brigitte Greunke (GER)
3. Marie Chantal Demaille (FRA)
3. Brigitte Martin (FRA)
5. Diane Hiatt (Sparks, Nev.)
6. Yoshiko Tachibana (JPN)
7. Annegret Hamann (GER)
8. Constance Adam (GBR)

10. Sally Higgins (Tinton Falls, N.J.)
11. Catherine Radle (Atlanta, Ga.)

Veteran World Championships Women’s Team Foil
1. USA
2. France
3. Russia
4. Germany
5. Finland
6. Italy
7. Japan
8. Great Britain