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U.S. Claims Six Medals at Vet Worlds

10/15/2016, 12:30am CDT
By Kristen Henneman

Friday was a six-medal day for Team USA at the Vet Worlds, including gold medal wins by Jennette Starks-Faulkner and Arnie Messing and bronzes from Daryl Taylor, Frank Hewitt, Anne-Marie Walters and the U.S. Men's Saber Team. Photo Credit: Valerie Asher.

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – Team USA had its most successful day of competition yet on the fourth day of the Veteran World Championships in Stralsund, Germany on Friday, winning six medals, including golds from Jennette Starks-Faulkner (Middletown, Conn.) and Arnold Messing (Brooklyn, N.Y.)

The six-medal haul brought Team USA’s medal total for the Championships to 12 with two days remaining in the competition.

Ten-time Veteran Worlds Team member Starks-Faulkner earned her second women’s 60-69 foil title as she also won gold in 2014. Her close friend and college teammate Anne-Marie Walters (Parkland, Fla.) also finished on the podium, bringing home her seventh individual Veteran Worlds medal with a bronze.

In men’s epee, three Americans won their first Veteran World Championship medals. With his gold, Messing became the first American, man or woman, to win the +70 epee event since the +70 category was introduced in 2009. Frank Hewitt (Jamul, Calif.) and Daryl Taylor (Los Angeles, Calif.) each won bronze in the men’s +70 and men’s 60-69 epee, respectively.

The men’s saber team also earned the Americans’ first team medal of the competition with a bronze. 

Both Starks-Faulkner, who won gold in this event in 2014, and Walters, the reigning Vet World Champion, went undefeated in pool play, earning the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds, and defeated their table of 32 opponents 10-1. Starks-Faulkner cruised through the next two rounds with a 10-2 victory over Laura Grande (ITA) in the table of 16 and a 10-4 win over Corinne Aubailly (FRA) in the quarterfinals while Walters, competing at her 11th Vet Worlds, edged out Jennifer Morris (GBR), 7-6, and Jane Clayton (GBR), 10-7, to guarantee a spot on the podium.

In the semifinals, Starks-Faulkner controlled her bout against Kaoru Amari (JPN), 10-5. The final saw the five-time Vet World medalist earn a 10-8 victory over Annabelle Ballard (AUS), who had ended the day of Walters in the previous round on the final touch, 10-9.

Jude Offerle (Winnetka, Ill.) defeated Isabelle Thelot (FRA), 7-5, in the 32, but fell in the 16, 10-4, to Amari. Nora Gutkovskaya (Fair Lawn, N.J.) was eliminated in the table of 32 with a 7-5 loss to Clayton.

Beginning the direct elimination rounds of the men’s 60-69 epee competition with a narrow 6-5 victory over Pawel Krawczyk (POL) in the table of 64, Taylor then bested Philippe Pfulg (SUI), 10-2, and Thomas Merky (SUI), 10-6. After defeating Mark Ballard (CAN), 10-4, in the quarters, Taylor fell 10-4 in the semis to Francois Gaudry (FRA), 10-4, winning his first Vet Worlds medal in his second Veteran Worlds appearance.

Two rounds earlier in the round of 16, Gaudry defeated Drew Ridge (Warminster, Pa.), 10-9. Ridge started his day with a 10-3 win over Peter Blaksteen (DEN) before defeating Eiichi Ide (JPN) on the final touch, 10-9.

Charles Schneider (Novi, Mich.) and Thomas Henzler (Houston, Texas) also competed for the U.S. with both falling by a single touch in the table of 64.

In the men’s +70 epee event, Messing’s journey to gold began with a bye to the 32, where he beat Jean Luc Lenoir (FRA), 8-6. He then overcame Masashi Narita (JPN), 8-5, setting up a quarterfinal match-up with teammate Bruno Goossens (Jacksonville, Ore.) Messing took the bout 10-8, coming back from a 4-0 deficit to secure a medal. Messing defeated Reinhard Muenster (GER), 10-7, in the semifinals and easily handled Wolfgang Vehrs in the final, 10-4.

To claim his bronze, Hewitt shut out Ilkka Seppanen (FIN), 10-0, in the table of 32 and beat reigning champion Winfried Suchanek (GER), 10-7, in the 16. Hewitt had no problems with the 2014 champion, William Osbaldeston (GBR), in the quarters, winning 6-0, but came up one point shy of facing Messing in the finals with a 10-9 loss to Vehrs.

Two other members of Team USA earned top 16 finishes with Goossens finishing fifth and Jonathan Jefferies (Alameda, Calif.) taking ninth place. Goossens defeated Per Svensson (SWE), 10-5, in the 32 and Ermes Cassago (ITA), 10-9, before falling to Messing. Jeffries advanced to the table of 16 with a 10-3 victory over Dieter Allkaemper (GER), but lost 9-3 to Osbaldeston in the next round.

The U.S. Men’s Saber Team entered Friday’s event with a lineup that included three athletes who won medals in the individual events, including Bill Becker (Gilbert, Ariz.) and Oleg Stetsiv (Staten Island, N.Y.), who won silver and bronze, respectively, in the 60-69 saber competition, as well as the 60-69 saber silver medalist, David Seuss (Boston, Mass.) Carlton Badger (Durham, N.C.), Victor Bianchini (San Diego, Calif.) and Philip Sbarbaro (Vienna, Va.) rounded out the team.

The gold medalists at the last two Veteran World Championships, Team USA dominated its pool bouts, defeating Spain, 30-9, and the Netherlands, 30-16. In the quarterfinals, the Americans beat France 30-22 but would not get to defend their title as they fell 30-26 in the semis. However, the U.S. rebounded for a 30-19 victory over Russia to bring home bronze.

In the women’s +70 foil competition, Ruth Dodge (Loudon, N.H.) earned a bye to the table of 16, where she fell 10-3 to 2015 bronze medalist Judith Hendricks (AUT). Her three teammates, Diane Reckling (White Plains, N.Y.), Bettie Graham (Washington, D.C.) and Mary Turzillo (Berea, Ohio), each lost in the table of 32.

Click here to view complete results.

Competition continues tomorrow with the following events:

  • Women’s Team Foil
  • Men’s 50-59 Epee
  • Women’s 50-59 Saber
  • Women’s 60-69 Saber
  • Women’s +70 Saber

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

Veteran World Championships Women’s 60-69 Foil
1. Jennette Starks-Faulkner (Middletown, Conn.)

2. Annabelle Ballard (AUS)
3. Kaoru Amari (JPN)
3. Anne-Marie Walters (Parkland, Fla.)
5. Astrid Kircheis (GER)
6. Corinne Aubailly (FRA)
7. Jane Clayton (GBR)
8. Iris Gardini (ITA)

13. Jude Offerle (Winnetka, Ill.)
25. Nora Gutkovskaya (Fair Lawn, N.J.)

Veteran World Championships Women’s +70 Foil
1. Nadejda Arskaya (RUS)
2. Marie Chantal Demaille (FRA)
3. Brigitte Greunke (GER)
3. Kerstin Palm (SWE)
5. Marja-Liisa Tuulikki Someroja (FIN)
6. Tatiana Lubetskaya (RUS)
7. Judith endricks (AUT)
8. Barbel Gorus (GER)

11. Ruth Dodge (Loudon, N.H.)
17. Diane Reckling (White Plains, N.Y.)
19. Bettie Graham (Washington, D.C.)
21. Mary Turzillo (Berea, Ohio)

Veteran World Championships Men’s 60-69 Epee
1. Giuliano Pianca (ITA)
2. Francois Gaudry (FRA)
3. Daryl Taylor (Los Angeles, Calif.)
3. Jean Stock (BEL)
5. Ralph Johnson (GBR)
6. Mark Ballard (CAN)
7. Laszlo Imreh (HUN)
8. Norbert Kuehn (GER)

11. Drew Ridge (Warminster, Pa.)
37. Charles Schneider (Novi, Mich.)
50. Thomas Henzler (Houston, Texas)

Veteran World Championships Men’s +70 Epee
1. Arnold Messing (Brooklyn, N.Y.)

2. Wolfgang Vehrs (GER)
3. Renhard Muenster (DEN)
3. Frank Hewitt (Jamul, Calif.)
5. Bruno Goossens (Jacksonville, Ore.)

6. Renzo Boisco (SUI)
7. Robin Davenport (GBR)
8. William D Osbaldeston (GBR)

9. Jonathan Jefferies (Alameda, Calif.)

Veteran World Championships Men’s Team Saber
1. Italy
2. Great Britain
3. USA
4. Russia
5. Germany
6. Netherlands
7. Spain
8. France

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