(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – Yeisser Ramirez (Brooklyn, N.Y.), a 2015 Senior World Team member, put two more Olympic qualification points on the board on Friday when he earned a top-64 result at the Heidenheim Epee World Cup in Germany.
Ramirez finished 5-1 in the pools on Thursday and won both of his preliminary direct elimination bouts, taking victories over Sturla Torkildsen (NOR) and Alexandre Bouzaid (SEN) by 15-12 and 15-8 scores, respectively.
Ramirez would be the only member of Team USA to compete in the table of 64 on Saturday and, while he earned valuable qualification points for Rio, Ramirez lost his opening bout, 15-10 to 2009 Senior World team bronze medalist Krzysztof Mikolajczak (POL).
Although he did not qualify for the second day of competition, 2012 Senior World Team Champion Ben Bratton (New York City, N.Y.) advanced to the preliminary table of 64 on Thursday which allowed him to earn one point on the Adjusted Olympic Rankings.
The AOR will be used to allocate slots to athletes for the Olympic Games in the instances in which a nation does not qualify a squad to compete in the team event. Each zone receives two qualification positions (one per nation) for such athletes and Maxime Brinck-Croteau (CAN) currently holds the first position with 42 points after his silver medal finish at the Pan American Championships last April. Three-time Senior World Team member Jason Pryor (Elyria, Ohio) sits in second with 41 points. Bratton’s finish on Thursday allowed him to move from 39.5 points to 40.5 points. Ramirez sits in sixth with 28 points.
There are three remaining international tournaments that count towards the AOR, including the Vancouver World Cup in February, the Sofia Satellite Tournament in March and the Budapest Grand Prix which follows the satellite event.
Ramirez, Pryor, Bratton and two-time Senior World Team member Jimmy Moody (Colorado Springs, Colo.) finished 19th in the team event on Saturday after a 34-33 loss to Egypt – a team that is fighting to move into the top 16 in the AOR in order to retain its position in the Games as the top team in the African Zone.
Team USA has one remaining opportunity to earn the points needed to qualify for the team event in Rio at the Vancouver World Cup in Canada on Feb. 13.
Click here to view complete individual results.
Click here to view complete team results.
Top eight and U.S. results are as follows:
Heidenheim Men’s Individual Epee World Cup
1. Gauthier Grumier (FRA)
2. Bogdan Nikishin (UKR)
3. Jean-Michel Lucenay (FRA)
3. Anton Avdeev (RUS)
5. Max Heinzer (SUI)
6. Nikolai Novosjolov (EST)
7. Andras Redli (HUN)
8. Joerg Fiedler (GER)
46. Yeisser Ramirez (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
91. Ben Bratton (New York City, N.Y.)
94. Dylan Nollner (Ogden, Utah)
100. Alen Hadzic (New York City, N.Y.)
136. Ariel Simmons (Bellaire, Texas)
150. Jimmy Moody (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
193. Alex House (Upton, Mass.)
197. Samuel Freiman (Woodlands, Texas)
229. Kai-Moritz Keller (Medford, Mass.)
245. Joey Rafidi (Mountain View, Calif.)
Heidenheim Men’s Team Epee World Cup
1. Italy
2. France
3. Switzerland
4. Ukraine
5. Hungary
6. Russia
7. Korea
8. Czech Republic
19. USA
Tag(s): News Jimmy Moody Updates
