1st Men’s Saber Prediction Challenge a Success!

Did you pick them?

The first men’s saber prediction challenge was a hit with 50 people filling out brackets with their best guesses for results at the Bulgaria World Cup. 

Stephen was victorious with 104 points barely eeking out a win over Jason Choy with 100 points.    It was a tough competition to predict with only 1 fencer in the top-16 making it to the round of 8!!   Both Stephen and Jason picked Limbach to be victorious.  Stephen had Zhong, Dumetrescu and Montano in his top-4 as well. 

Rounding out the top 10: 3rd Place: Sam Hunter.  4th: Mr. MightyMouse 5th: Teddy Weller 6th: Kevin 7th: Pasquale 8th: Ben 9th: Molinjir 10th: Eric Arzoian

You can see all the results and predictions here:
http://www.bracketmaker.com/predict_list.cfm?parent=654519

Stephen: I’ll shoot you an email so you can tell me where to send the t-shirt!

I will try to do this again in Tunis  (Time and internet permitting) and maybe will keep a running tally for the rest of the season and declare a top-4 National Bracket Team at the end of the season.

In a Battle of Champions: Limbach Claims the Gold Over Zhong. Yakimenko Strong in Return. Big Day for Upsets.

Plovdiv, Bulgaria — 2009 World Champion Nicolas Limbach captured the gold over 2008 Olympic Champion Man Zhong 15-11.     Italian fencers, Dieggo Ochiuzzi and Liugi Miracco both finished 3rd after a strong day of fencing for both.

For the USA, Tim Morehouse advanced to the top-32 defeating Jiang of China 15-14 before falling to Alexey Yakimenko 9-15.   Ben Igoe fell 14-15 to Desci (HUN) and Homer lost to Nicholas Limbach 13-15 in the round of 64.

Yakimenko is making his return after a 2-month suspension by the Russian Fencing Federation for unsportsmanlike conduct at a competition.  He looked strong defeating  Szilagy (HUN), Morehouse (USA) and Dumetrescu (ROM) before falling to Mirraco (ITA).

There were a lot of upsets throughout the tournament.  Only one fencer in the top-16 advanced to the round of 8.  

In the round of 64: Hutchinson (GBR) defeated Pillet (FRA) 15-14.  Moreno (ESP) defeated Nemscik (HUN) 15-14.  Bela (HUN) defeated Lopez (ESP) Dolniceanu (ROM) defeated Pina.(ESP)

In the controversial bout of the day, Apithy (FRA) defeated Marti (ESP)15-14 on a disputed call.    Marti made a lunge which landed as Apithy retreated and then took over to riposte and the referees spent 10 minutes determining if Marti’s foot landed first, meaning his attack would be short, if if the blade landed first.  By a tiny amount they determined his foot landed first and gave the point to Apithy…

However, they spent so much time watching Marti’s feet that they missed Apithy potentially crossing his feet which would have given the bout to Marti.   Apithy had already left the strip as Marti tried to get them to look at the replay again to see his feet and he stood on the strip for 15 minutes as various conversations took place, but the bout was ultimatley awarded to Apithy.

Kosikov (RUS) was beating Wang (CHN) 8-0 a tthe break before Wang retired citing a back injury.

The competition continues tomorrow with the team events.  USA Vs. Japan in the round of 16.  Follow on www.twitter.com/timmorehouse

Lee Kiefer 1st out of Pools as 4 US Fencers Advance to 2nd Day (Team USA Women’s Foil World Cup in Gdansk, Poland)

 

Gdansk, Poland – The Women’s foil world cup got underway today with US fencer Lee Kiefer having a strong day.  She won all her matches in pool play as she advanced to the second day as the #1 seed for the first day and 17th seed overall.    Amibika Singh, Doris Willette and Nicole Ross also advanced.

Nzingha Prescod, Epiphany Georges, Madison Zeiss failed to advance to the bracket of 64.

Live Results and Bracket of 64 can be found live at: http://www.mat-fencing.com/Mask2010/2010-02-26/index_ENG.html

Dear Fencers Who Use Twitter, Facebook, Blog…Lend me Your Ear! (And Your Online Voice!)

Did you know President Obama fenced in front of the White House and that he says he loves the sport?

That our women’s saber team swept the medals at the Beijing Olympics and that overall team USA fencing took home 6 medals at the Games?

That the hit ABC show Modern Family has an entire episode based around the sport? (And many other shows have done the same!)

That fencing is featured in numerous advertisements around the world?

That fencing is a hot sport done by hundreds of thousands of people in the USA alone in clubs, after-school  programs, high school teams, in the  NCAA and other places? (And yes, that’s Natalie Portman fencing above)

Fencing is one of the greatest sports in the world and I’m hoping you’ll help me spread the word!   Since we’re not on television a lot, it’s essential that we have a strong presence online.   I’m working to centralize as many fun resources, pictures and articles as possible, but we need to be organized to grow and we all need to be involved!

WAYS YOU CAN HELP:
1) Please follow me on twitter: www.twitter.com/timmorehouse (For updates on the USA Olympic and National teams and other fun fencing stuff)

2) Join the 100,000 Fencers Facebook group: (CLICK HERE) (To show our strength in numbers and share resources!)

3) Tweet/Blog about our sport and feel free to
Send me good fencing stories and pictures and I’ll post them!

Predict The Results of Men’s Saber Bulgarian World Cup Contest! (Winner gets a USA Fencing T-Shirt!)

(3)Tarrantino (ITA) Game 1 Details (62)Hamar (HUN)

(1)Dumitrescu (ROM) Game 17 Details Yamamoto (JPN)

Winner of 1 Game 33 Details Winner of 2

Winner of 17 Game 41 Details Winner of 18

Winner of 33 Game 49 Details Winner of 34

Winner of 41 Game 53 Details Winner of 42

(35)Yagodka (UKR) Game 2 Details (30)Likhacheuska (BLR)

(33)Anstett (FRA) Game 18 Details (32)Buikevich (BLR)

(19)Occhiuzzi (ITA) Game 3 Details (46)Proskura

(17)Yakimenko (RUS) Game 19 Details at: Plo (48)Szilagy (HUN)

Winner of 3 Game 34 Details Winner of 4

Winner of 19 Game 42 Details Winner of 20

(51)Bela (ROM) Game 4 Details (14)Lopez (FRA)

(49)Jiang (CHN) Game 20 Details (16)Morehouse (USA)

PREDICT THE BUGLARIAN FENCING WORLD CUP RESULTS HERE!

Just found this program that let’s you create brackets which allow others to predict results.  You’ll need to register, but its free, and I’ve inputted all the matches for tomorrow.   Once I input the final results it will determine the winner.

I’ve been thinking of ways to get people more excited about following the USA fencing teams.  Even just within the large US fencing community itself–several hundred thousand fencers strong) So I’m interested to see if this gets anyone excited…

CLICK HERE TO ENTER YOUR PREDICTIONS!!! GOOD LUCK! -Tim
CHECK ALL THE PREDICTIONS HERE!

PS Mine is just a test so don’t look too deeply into my predictions!

Plovdiv, Bulgaria Men’s Saber World Cup: Images from Day 1

Bulgaria Men’s Saber World Cup: Homer, Igoe and Morehouse Advance to day 2

Plovdiv, Bulgaria – International competition number 4/11 for team USA got off to a rocky start.   

On the positive side, Daryl Homer and Ben Igoe advance.  Homer went 3-3 in his pool and advanced by defeating Torchuk (UKR) 15-11.   Ben Igoe went 3-3 in his pool and then defeated Gorski (POL) 15-14 to move onto day 2.

Olympian James Williams went 4-2 in his pools, but was elminated by Nagy (HUN) 14-15.   Mike Etropolski went 3-2 before falling to Dolniceanu (ROM) 7-15 and Barron Nydham went 4-2 before falling to Jansen (VEN).   Andrew Fischl went 1-5 in his pools and failed to advance.

In tomorrow’s bracket of 64, Tim Morehouse fences Jiang (CHN), Igoe squares off against Decsi (HUN) and Daryl Homer faces World Champion Limbach (GER).

Check out/predict the Results of the ROUND 64 Bracket (CLICK HERE)

Follow the action live on twitter: www.twitter.com/timmorehouse

The Glamorous Life of Fencers on the Road…

We lived blessed lives as athletes doing what we do, but sometimes it’s just fun to look at what we have to do to get to Olympic glory…

There are lots of strange places, long flights and very unglamorous portions.  Take our current hotel in Bulgaria: Our room smells of urine, has rat poison behind the bed and when we walked into our “double room” to find only one bed were told by the hotel clerk, “but it’s a big bed, no?”

“Sorry sir, we’re not sleeping in the same bed no mater how big it is!”

Wouldn’t trade this life for anything else….

Women’s Fencing in Gdansk, Poland Now…(Picture of Venue) Updates Coming…

Women’s Foil Fencing Team Competing in Gdanks, Poland

The road to the Paris World Championships for women’s foil continues this weekend in Gdansk, Poland.

Ambika Singh, Lee Kiefer, Nzgingha Prescord, Doris Willette, Nicole Ross, Margeret Lu and Maddie Zeiss are competing in Gdansk, Poland this weekend.

Catch all the updates here and on twitter at: www.twitter.com/timmorehouse

Ambika will be sending me updates and I’ll be posting.  Good luck girls!

The girls will be staying in Poland and afterwards and then heading onto Turino, Italy for another competition.

Here’s how the race looks right now for the National Team: (Top 4 Qualify)

RANKING
1 (2988.75 points) Prescod, Nzihgha

2(1827 points) Singh, Ambika

3 (1695 points) Kiefer, Lee

4 (1435 points) Lu, Margaret L.C.

5 (1395 points) Ross, Nicole

6 (1375 points) # Shaito, Mona

7 (1210 points) # Kiefer, Alexandra

8 (1200 points) Willette, Doris