Dumitrescu wins Budapest Men’s Saber Grand Prix over Pillet 15-14

Budapest, Hungary – Rares Dumitrescu of Romania captured the gold defeated Pillet of France 15-14 in a dramatic final.   Gu (KOR) and Occhiuzzi (ITA) finished 3rd.

Full results can be found: http://gkk2011.pbtfencing.hu/clasfinal.htm

Tim Morehouse paced team USA finishing 12th defeating Apithy (FRA) 15-14 and #3 world ranked Oh (KOR) 15-7 before falling to eventual Bronze medal winner Occhiuzzi (ITA) 13-15.   Dan Bak finished 43rd and Daryl Homer 45th.   Bak fell to Shturbabin 13-15 and Homer lost to Liu (13-15)

The men’s saber fencing world cup circuit resumes again in less than two weeks with the Moscow world cup.

Notes:
* Aldo Montano (ITA) and Yakimenko (RUS) both did not compete due to injury

* The FIE continues to play with the placement of the video replay screen.  No longer is it in front of the main referee while he’s refereeing for him to double check calls on his own, but it is now off to the side. (Time saving measure)

* On a personal note, in my 64 match I challenged 7 calls and won 6.   that’s the most I’ve ever challenged in a bout!

James Williams Paces US Fencers with Top16 Result at the Budapest World Cup of Fencing.

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 entire ranking Tableu of the competition can be found here: http://www.hunfencing.hu/images/stories/hirek/2010/gkkend/tableau_b8.htm

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.

Men’s Saber Fencing Budapest World Cup: Williams and Etroploski Advance to Join Morehouse and Igoe in the top 64.

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)

Where in the World is Men’s Saber? (A: Budapest World Cup 2010!)

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: http://www.twitter.com/timmorehouse

Picture of the Day: Jim Carrey’s Movie poster in Hungarian

Jim Carrey’s new movie called Az Igen Ember in Hungarian aka Yes, Man. 

I snapped this photograph while we were at the cinema in Budapest. (yes, we did see a movie while in Hungary!)

In our defense, we needed a non-walking evening activity not in our hotel so this seemed like a good choice.  We have also done cultural stuff like go to a  famous Hungarian Bath House and check out the sites.

Interesting cultural note: They have assigned seats in their movie theaters

Jennifer Lopez has a Shoe Store? (Picture of the Day)

Who knew?

I have never seen one in the USA, but while at the mall the other day in Budapest, Hungary we ran into the J LO Footwear by Jennifer Lopez store.    There didn’t seem to be too many customers inside, but it was in the afternoon. 

While I was taking this picture a mall cop got upset and ordered me to stop or else…

Maybe they are trying to keep this as Hungary’s little secret? (Luckily, I got out of the mall with the evidence!)

Ben Igoe Bronze Medal in Budapest Grand Prix (Congrats!)

Ben Igoe on the podium in Budapest

Congratulations to Ben Igoe  on his 3rd place finish at the Budapest Men’s Saber Grand Prix!

Traditionally, this is one of the hardest world cups of the season, but Ben made it look easy slicing his way through some of the top fencers in the world including #1 ranked Luigi Tarrantino of Italy and 2004 Olympic Silver Medalist Zsolt Nemscik of Hungary in achieving the highest result of his career. 

Using an extremely effective counter-attack along with a lunge that surprissed many opponents with it’s length he made it look easy for most of the day until running into Dumetrescu of Romania.

To top it off, he fenced great in the team event the next day helping the USA to finish in 6th place.   The team event included victories over Spain and Russia (Only the 3rd time we have beaten them in history)

Results (130 competitors)
1 Dumitrescu (Romania)
2 Lopez (France)
3 Ben Igoe (USA) and Zalomir (Romania)
29 James Williams (USA)
36 Tim Morehouse (USA)
39 Jason Rogers (USA)

Team (18 teams)
1 Hungary
2 France
3 Italy,Belarus
6 USA (James Williams, Jason Rogers, Ben Igoe, Tim Morehouse)

News and Notes
* Dating back to the Thailand world cup in May 2008, at least one USA fencer has reached the top-8 in 7 straight international events and 9 of the past 11.
* Also competing for the USA were Luther Clement, Konate Primus and Mike Etropolski
* Saber World Champion Felix Becker of Germany was coaching the Canadian team
* Newly retired 2000 Olympic Champion Mihai Covaliu was there as a coach for Romania
* Dmitry Guy traveled with the USA team as a coach
* In the team event: Hungary fenced without Nemscik using Junior Iliasz  and France fenced without Lopez using Apithy.
* Just announced: Algeria is postponed (it was scheduled during their elections) and the Thailand World Cup is cancelled

The USA Contingent at Dinner