USA Fencing

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – Rio Olympian Kat Holmes (Washington, D.C.) earned a top-32 finish at the first epee World Cup of the new season with her 20th place result in Tallinn, Estonia on Saturday.

Holmes entered the tournament exempt from the pool rounds on Friday as the No. 14 seed and defeated Hyuna Shin (KOR), 15-11, in the table of 64 on Saturday.

Holmes missed the table of 16 by a single touch when she lost to Ewa Nelip (POL), 13-12, in the table of 32.

Two of Holmes’s teammates, Amanda Sirico (Bowie, Md.) and Francesca Bassa (Houston, Texas), each placed in the top 64.

Sirico, a two-time Junior World team medalist, finished the pool rounds at 5-1 to take the 31st seed in the table of 64 where she lost to Jinsil Yu (KOR), 15-9.

Bassa, a 2009 Junior World team medalist, went 3-3 in pools and won her preliminary table of 128 round, 15-10, against Catharina Kock (FIN). With one win remaining to qualify for the second day of competition, the venue was hit by a neighborhood power outage and the remaining bouts were moved to Saturday morning.

On Saturday, Bassa got the win she needed at 15-14 over Amalia Tataran (ROU). Bassa moved directly into the table of 64 and dropped her next bout to two-time World medalist Irina Embrich (EST) who went on to take bronze in front of the home crowd.

On Sunday, Holmes, Sirico, Bassa and Rio Olympian Katarzyna Trzopek (Washington, D.C.) fenced in the team competition.

After a bye into the table of 16, Team USA drew Hungary and trailed most of the match with Hungary holding a six-touch lead, 22-16, after the sixth bout. In the seventh, Bassa defeated Reka Bohus, 5-4, and Holmes followed with a 5-3 win over Vivien Varnai in the setup bout. Sirico outscored Dorina Budai, 13-11, in the anchor bout, but Hungary took the match, 40-39.

In the 9th – 16th place table, Team USA found itself in a similar predicament, trailing Poland, 30-17, after the first sixth bouts. Bassa defeated Barbara Rutz, 7-4, and Holmes split the eighth against Magdalena Piekarska, 2-2. With 10 points to make up, Sirico outscored Aleksandra Zamachowska, 14-9, in the anchor bout, but couldn’t close the gap with Hungary taking the win, 45-40.

Team USA dominated the next two matches, winning eight of nine bouts against Romania for a 45-29 victory in the 13th – 16th place table.

In the team’s final match of the day, the United States met Canada and avenged its loss at the Pan Ams in June with a 45-31 victory to finish 13th.

Click here to view complete results.

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

Tallinn Women’s Individual Epee World Cup
1. Tatiana Logunova (RUS)
2. Violetta Kolobova (RUS)
3. Irina Embrich (EST)
3. Renata Knapik-Miazga (POL)
5. A Lam Shin (KOR)
6. Nathalie Moellhausen (BRA)
7. Giulia Rizzi (ITA)
8. Dzhoan Feybi Bezhura (UKR)

20. Kat Holmes (Washington, D.C.)
43. Amanda Sirico (Bowie, Md.)
60. Francesca Bassa (Houston, Texas)
70. Anna van Brummen (Houston, Texas)
86. Katarzyna Trzopek (Redwood City, Calif.)
100. Natalie Vie (Phoenix, Ariz.)
123. Holly Buechel (South Orange, N.J.)
142. Victoria Mo (Irvine, Calif.)
162. Tessa Wells (Phoenix, Ariz.)

Tallinn Women’s Team Epee World Cup
1. Estonia
2. France
3. Ukraine
4. China
5. Russia
6. Germany
7. Korea
8. Hungary

13. USA