I’m in need of your quick and easy (and free!) assistance to support a great cause. In case you didn’t watch the above video, James Williams, Ben Igoe, Daryl Homer and I (Aka The US National Men’s Saber Fencing Team) are supporting Jumpstarts world-wide campaign to promote early literacy.
Jumpstart is a national early literacy organization and Jumpstart’s Read for the Record is their annual campaign to raise awareness about the crisis that exists in early education for children in low-income communities.
This year, Jumpstart is inviting anyone and everyone to choose the 2010 official book for Jumpstart’s Read for the Record! When you vote for your favorite book, Jumpstart’s Read for the Record’s founding sponsor and partner, the Pearson Foundation, will donate $1* to support Jumpstart’s yearlong program. *Up to $200,000
Olympic Fencer James Williams reads at least an hour daily
Choose from one of the following children’s book titles –Blueberries for Sal, Make Way for Ducklings, Peter’s Chair, and The Snowy Day. Voting closes on February, 28. The book that receives the most votes will be announced in March and will become the centerpiece of Jumpstart’s fifth annual record-breaking campaign!
Ways to Vote:
Visit www.readfortherecord.org/vote and vote now!
You can also text your vote (up to five times)! Text the words below to 90999:
BLUE to 90999 – to vote for Blueberries for Sal
DUCK to 90999 – to vote for Make Way for Ducklings
PETER to 90999 – to vote for Peter’s Chair
SNOW to 90999 – to vote for The Snowy Day
Pass this along to your friends and family and help Jumpstart raise awareness of the crisis in early literacy!
Thank you,
Tim Morehouse
PS I appreciate your support! www.readfortherecord.org/vote (takes 5 seconds to help raise money and make a difference!)
The first time I traveled to Budapest for the men’s saber fencing world cup was in 2001 with Herby Raynaud, Keeth Smart, Ivan Lee, Akhi Spencer-El and a few other fencers now retired.
The Hotel Stadion (now called Hotel Arena) is a place everyone who has ever been on a team or tried to make a team has likely stayed. It hosts world cups in every weapon, different age brackets and they are all at the same location. A building connected to the Hungarian National fencing training center ,and a short 10 minute walk through a large sports area with multiple stadiums and buildings.
They’re is usually another competition happening in another sport. For many years it was speed skating. I remember meeting Apollo Ohno during one of the trips, and the past two years a mixed marital arts competition has been going on the same time.
The first thing that happens when you arrive at the hotel after the 10+ hour flight is a blonde woman says “YOU PAY NOW” in a thick Hungarian accent and after a moment of disbelief/protest you realize you must “pay now” or not have room.
To add insult to injury, for a long time you were required to pay in cash, which meant trekking out into the snow and cold to the cash machine at the train station a few blocks away to get money! Ahh, the charms and traditions of life on the road.
For the past 8 years I have missed most of the Super Bowls. We’re usually here during that weekend and the game starts at 3am Hungarian time since we’re 6 hours ahead. A few times we’ll trek out to bar and try to watch it, but most times we’re relegated to checking the score in the morning. Plus, they don’t get the commercials here and that’s half the fun!
Anyway, during that first trip, Herby Raynaud, a three-time national team member, piled everyone into cabs and we went out to dinner at a place called Fatale. This is perhaps my favorite tradition of all the world cup locations. It has been a destination for team USA saber fencing for at least 15+ years now. Huge plates of meat and good times. The Fatale dish, which sadly, no ordered this year, is a ridiculous amount of meat, but most of the dishes are large!
Fatale is a place I’ve shared some of my favorite conversations with my teammates and coaches over the years at the end of the competition. I’m happy to keep it alive now that those fencers who first introduced me are gone. It’s somewhat nostalgic for me to think that US Fencers have been sharing these experiences for years.
The USA women’s saber fencing team captured GOLD today in Orleans, France!
Mariel Zagunis, Dagmara Wozniak, Daria Schneider and Emily Jacobson each fenced strongly throughout the day as the US team beat Romania 45-44, Italy 45-29, Ukraine 45-39 and finally the French team 45-44. GO TEAM USA!
check out the massive jumbotron screens used for the finals!
Here is Dagmara Wozniak’s take on it via FB message moments ago: I’m just going to say that today was so much fun. I haven’t had such a great team dynamic and really it plays such an important part in how we support each other and fence for each other.
And, from Daria Schneider: Ed is really great team coach and it wasawesome to have an opportunity to fence so many strong fencers and be able to try out what we have been working on with him in a competitive setting.
And a packed stadium! I hope we do this up right when we have our NYC world cup!
Word up Dags and Daria! Daga kept me posted throughout the day via text message as we fenced here im Budapest. We finished 6th. More on that tomorrow when I have the energy to write another post!
So happy for the girls! We’ll be seeing them in a few days in Moscow for a joint men’s and women’s saber Grand Prix event in Russia!
James Williams lead the US fencing team with a 12th place result at the Budapest, Hungary result. He defeated Olympic Champion Aldo Montano 15-9 in the of 64, Kuniusz of Poland 15-5 in the round of 32 before falling 15-8 to Zalomir of Romania. This is the second competition in a row that Zalomir has eliminated Williams.
His teammates, Tim Morehouse fell in the round of 32 14-15 to Iliasz (HUN) after defeating Perros (CAN) 15-12 in the round of 64. Ben Igoe lost 14-15 to Beijing Olympic Champion Zhong (CHN) and Mike Etropolski fell 11-15 to Zalomir. (ROM)
Rares Dumetrescu of Romania captured the Gold medal over Gu of Korea. Zalomir (ROM) and Iliasz (HUN) finished tied for third.
The team event begins early tomorrow so I’m off to bed and will write more tomorrow. We fence Japan in the round of 16. Daryl Homer, Ben Igoe, James Williams and Tim Morehouse will make up the US team.
Budapest, Hungary — Overall, It was a rough day for USA fencers. Andrew Fischl (2-4 pools), Luther Clement (2-4 pools) and Jeff Spear (2-4 pools) went out in the round of 256 and Daryl Homer (4-2 pools) lost in the 128 in this very competitive field. James Williams (3-3 pools) and Mike Etropolski (4-2 pools) both advanced to join Ben Igoe (15th seed) and Tim Morehouse (14th eed) in the brack of 64.
Homer started very strong in the pool winning his first 3 matches 5-0, 5-2, 5-1 before losing two in a row 4-5 after leading. He then lost a tough match to Frenchmen Wilian 13-15. Clement lost to Hartung (GER), Fischl los to Ciari (ITA) and Spear lost to Gall (Hun).James Williams defeated Yilgin (TUR) and O’Connell (GBR) to advance and Etropolski bested Kosivov (RUS).
In interested news, Alexy Yakimenko (RUS) did not fence because he is serving a 2-month suspension for throwing his mask at a Referee during a national competition in Russia. Savich (RUS) is also currently serving a suspension for failing a non-performing enhancing drug test.
Lukashenko seemed very happy and smiling more than I’ve ever seen him in a few years as he coached the Japanese team as he proudly wore their warmups.
Tomorrow’s Round of 64 Draws: Williams V Montano (ITA) 9am (2am EST) * Olympic Champion 2004
Morehouse V. Perros (CAN) 9am (2am EST)
Igoe V. Zhong (CHN) * Olympic Champion 2008
Etropolski V. Zalomir (ROM)
In case you were wondering, the US men’s saber team is now in Budapest, Hungary for the first Grand Prix of the season! Just arrived today and competing tomorrow!
James Williams, Ben Igoe, Daryl Homer, Mike Etropolski, Andrew Fischl, Jeff Spear and myself make up the 8-man US contingent. We arrived today, checked our equipment and just finished eating dinner down the street from our hotel. Already in bed and preparing for battle!
There are 141 competitors from around the globe. This is usually the hardest world cup of the season and pretty much everyone is here from China, Korea, France, Russia, Italy etc.
This is the 2nd of 11 world cups for team USA to decide the US National Team which will compete at the World Championships in November in Paris, France. The team is based on points accumulated at these events.
Notable: Alexey Yakimenko (former world #1) of Russia is still out with an injured knee and will not compete.
Ben Igoe , currently ranked 16 in the world, finished 3rd here last year and will need to have a strong result to maintain that ranking since this competition is making up a large portion of his international points.
Andrew Fischl is making his Grand Prix debut for Team USA.
Ben Igoe (ranked 16th) and Tim Morehouse (ranked 15th) have a bye from day 1 competition
Former World Champion Lukashenko of Ukraine is coaching the Japanese team.
** Tomorrow is the first day of competition and there will be 3 rounds of pools at 9am, 10:30am and noon followed by direct elimination bouts to determine 48 competitors moving onto the second day and who will join the worlds top-16. Sunday is team event.
I will be twittering live action at: www.twitter.com/timmorehouse
Good night friends! :) 1 more day in Hungary and then to Moscow for anthr comp. on the road to qlfy for Paris World Champ amngst other goals 11 hours ago
Do you have media Contacts? Business contacts? Want to donate? Need a speaker or know someone who does? Have a great fencing story or picture?
Email me!
tim@timmorehouse.com
Every little bit helps!
Tim on Twitter!
