Ready, Fence! Day 1 of World Championships

The World Championships of Fencing kicked off today in Antalya, Turkey with preliminary rounds of women’s saber and men’s foil.  Only 4 US fencers competed today and all of them advanced to the round of 64: Daria Schneider (3-2 in pools, advanced), Dagmara Wozniak (3-2 in pools, advance), Miles Chamley Watson (4-2 in pools, advanced) and Alex Massailis (4-1, advanced)

Olympic Champion Mariel Zagunis, Monica Aksamit, Kurt Getz and Gerek Meinhart all had byes.    The format this year is slightly adjusted.  The preliminary rounds for each event are happening followed by a 2 day break before the tableau of 64.

This is the most amount of US fencers in the top-16 in history.  Many US fencers put up strong results this year, but a number of intriguing factors upped those numbers.  First, the Asian Zonal is being held after worlds so the FIE removed their points dropping most of them drastically given that competitions value to the world ranking.    Second, Monica Aksamit was ranked 17^th, but #5 in the world Tan is not competing here with rumors of conflict with her coach Christian Bauer being the reason.  This moved her up to 16^th and a bye.  The 6’6 Wang, China’s anchor in the team event is not competing as well with similar rumors abounding about his absence.

Tomorrow, women’s foil and men’s epee will be competing in the preliminary rounds.   Stay tuned here for stories, www.twitter.com/timmorehouse for live results and fencing.net for more stories!

Team USA Cadets and Juniors Winning Medals at World Championships In Belfast!

Our Cadets and Juniors are doing a fantastic job at the Cadet/Junior World Championships in Belfast!!

Check out www.fencing.net for great coverage and details! (Go Craig Harkins!)

Congratulations to all our Cadets and Juniors as well as their families for all their hard work and sacrifice to qualify!  Special congratulations to our new world champions and medalists!

Bulgaria Men’s Saber Grand Prix Results: Daryl Homer Top-16. Rest USA Team out in 64. Limbach Wins Competition

Day 2:
Daryl Homer in his first international competition makes top-16 defeating Romanian Hanceanu and Polish fencer Dominik.    He eventualy lost to Lopez of France to make the top-8.  

 Congratulations to Daryl on a great result!

Daryl's picture from GQ magazine last year

The rest of the American team didn’t fare as well.   They all lost in the top-64.  I’m slowly getting results and details from Jason Rogers as he texts me from Bulgaria. 

Semi-Finals Individual:
Limbach (GER) defeats Dumetrescu (ROM) in Semi-final
 Desci (Hun) defeats Montano (ITA)

Finals:
Limbach Defeats Desci for Gold

Day 1

I’m sitting this one out so my update comes via email from Jason Rogers.  

They have just finished day one.  Here are pool results and match-ups for the bracket of 64:

Ben Igoe won all bouts and fencing Nemscik HUN 

* rematch from Budapest when Ben prevailed

 

James Williams 5-1 fencing Beaudry CAN

 

Daryl Homer 5-1 fencing Hanceanu ROM

* Daryl’s first international world cup so great result so far

 

Mike Etropolski 2-4 and went through, fencing Tarantino Italy

 

Luther Clement 3-3, lost to Dolceanu BLR

Jason Rogers 3-3, lost to Kosikov of Russia 13-15

Budapest Fencing World Cup 2009 Journal (Updated Feb. 4 5:20pm)

JFK Airport, NYC —Jason Rogers, James Williams and I are off to Budapest, Hungary! This is probably my 8th trip to Budapest and anyone who wants to make a national team in fencing on any level  and in any weapon knows that the road usually goes through Budapest!  (And the Hotel Stadion of course!)

It’s traditionally one of the hardest competitions and they host a number of Olympic sports  in the city each year at their sporting facilities.  Ben Igoe and a few other Americans will be joiing us tomorrow.   

This is the first Grand Prix for men’s saber this year so we’ll be competing individually as well as in the team event. 

Budapest, Hungary Day 1 — After four hours sitting on the plane waiting to take off we finally departed JFK for our 8 hour journey to Hungary.   Luckily, the plane wasn’t very full so we each had our own row and got to lay down and sleep for most of the flight.   James had actually slept three hours and when he woke up we were still on the ground!

James eating desert in a restaurant near the hotel

Once we arrived we headed to the Hotel Stadion…except in earth shaking news, the hotel Stadion is now the Hotel Arena! Craziness!    It’s still exactly the same, but the new name was still shocking.    We did a light work out and swan for a bit which we have read is a great activity to help the body recover from a long flight. 

We have tomorrow as a rest day, but we’re planning on getting up at 8am which is around the time we will need to get up compete on the following day so we start to get our bodies ready to perform in this time zone.  We’re going to take it easy tomorrow, check our equipment and do our best to stay relaxed.

Istanbul, Turkey Saber Fencing World Cup Matches 2009

I’m back in NYC and a bit delirious from jet lag.  (Got upgraded to 1st class on the way home! Yeah!)  I will be uploading more videos tomorrow.  Thanks for all the congratulatory messages and emails! TM

LOPEZ versus Lapkes for Gold Medal Part 1

Lopez versus Lapkes for Gold Medal Part 2

Pryemko versus Lopez Semi-Finals Part 1

Pryemko versus Lopez Semi-Finals Part 2

7th Place Finish at World Cup in Istanbul, Turkey

I finshed 7th out of 96 competitors from about 15 different countries.  It’s a good start to the season, and hopefully I can build on this result.   I defeated Simeonov (Bulgaria) in the top-64 15-6, then Dominik (Poland) 15-6 and Zanin (Russia) 15-10 before falling to individual Olympic Silver Medalist Lopez from France 9-15.

Lapkes (Belarus) took home the gold over Lopez and Verbackrakel (France) and Pryemko (Belarus) were 3rd. I have the top-4 matches on tape and will post when I get back to the states along with some more thoughts on the competition.

 

Gold Medal Match: Lopez (FRA) versus Lapkes (BLR)

James Williams lost in the top-64 to Tarchuk (Ukraine) 14-15.  

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Our next 2 competitions are back-to-back Grand Prix’s in Budapest and Moscow.  I also just heard some awful news about our budget…more to come.

 

1/16/08)James Williams and I are the lone representatives for the USA at this world cup since most people are competing in the National competition in Kentucky.  We arrived today and have been resting at our hotel.  The competition starts tomorrow, but we both have byes until the second day so we’ll just be checking in our equipment tomorrow and practicing a bit. 

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The field is 90 fencers with competitors from Russia, France, Germany, Ukraine, Belarus, Germany, Poland, Britain, Iran, Greece and of course Turkey and a few others.   There are no Asian countries and no Italy (except for a pair of Juniors), Romania or Hungary at this tournament, but it’s still early in the season and right after the Olympics.

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On thing that is  interesting about this trip is that we’re starting to see who is still continuing to fence and who isn’t.   Pozniakov is retired, it looks like Dennis Bauer and Christian Kraus are also done according to the German coach, Lapkes is entered and fencing as are all the top Ukrainians including former world champion Lukashenko.   I haven’t gotten a chance to talk to any of the other athletes yet, but I’m sure I’ll hear more about who is still fencing and isn’t over next few days.

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One interesting note, there are two Israeli saber fencers entered into this tournament.  This is the first time, I have ever been to a tournament with Israeli saber fencers. 

James and I on the flight from NYC to Turkey before we departed

Top 16 Seeding at Istanbul:
1) Julien Pillet FRA  2) Buikevich BLR 3) Lopez (FRA) 4) Yakimenko RUS 5) Morehouse USA 6) Kovalev RUS 7) Lapkes BLR 8 ) Williams USA 9 ) Pryemko BLR 10) Anstett FRA 11) Beishem GER 12) Huebner GER 13) Lukashenko UKR 14) Apithy FRA 15) Koniusz POL 16) Darvishjani IRI

Iran had a world cup last week and no one but Iran and maybe 2 other countries attended so between that and the zoal there are several Iranians ranked fairly high in the world now.

Gold Medal in Colorado Springs!

In the first competition of the new season, held in Colorado Springs, Colorado, I took home my first gold medal on the North American Cup Circuit.   I have finished 2nd and 3rd on many occasions, but this time I finally broke through for a victory!

With Manhattan Fencing Center Clubmates Daryl Homer who placed 6th and James Williams who place 8th.

The season after an Olympics is always a transition year and a lot of guys have retired so there was definitely a younger feel to everything with Keeth Smart, Ivan Lee, Tim Hagamen, Patrick Ghattas and other strong US fencers not competing.    I was happy with my result, but I know there is a lot of work still to be done!

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The next competition isn’t until mid-January when the World Cup season kicks off in Istanbul, Turkey.  

Paul Refyman, James Williams and I outside at the famous Broadmore hotel where the competition was held in Colorado Springs, Colorado