US Fencers Triumph at 2004 New York City Grand Prix of Fencing

As a result, the event was one of this season’s strongest international competitions, with more than 90 percent of the world’s highest-ranked athletes, including multiple Olympic medallists, turning out to vie for gold.

U.S. fencers rose to the occasion. The series of medals for U.S. athletes over the course of competition demonstrates serious American medal potential heading into the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

The weekend opened with a bang on Thursday, June 10 with an historic win for US Fencing. The U.S. men’s saber team of Keeth Smart (24, Brooklyn, N.Y.), Ivan Lee (23, Brooklyn, N.Y.), Jason Rogers (21, Los Angeles, Calif.), and Timothy Morehouse ( 25, Bronx, N.Y.) beat Spain 45-36 to take home the first ever U.S. men’s saber team World Cup gold.

The 8th-seed U.S. saber squad upset no. 1 seed Russia 45-39 in the quarterfinals with superb performances by all U.S. team members. They then defeated no. 4 seed France 45-41 in the semifinals where they faced the team from Spain.

The Spanish team was also on a roll, having pulled off its own string of upsets after being seeded 10th going into the competition and taking down the teams from the Ukraine and Hungary. But the U.S. men were not to be denied, and pulled off a convincing victory, 45-36.

Friday, June 11, the U.S. women’s saber team of Emma Baratta (19, Somerville, N.J.), Emily Jacobson (18, Dunwoody, Ga.), Sada Jacobson (21, Dunwoody, Ga.) and Mariel Zagunis (19, Beaverton, Ore.) earned the silver in their team event, the 2004 Women’s Saber World Championships, held in conjunction with the World Cup events in New York.

The U.S. women sliced through Hungary 45-22 and Romania 45-31 before meeting the no. 1-seeded Russia in the gold medal match. Throughout the exciting match the lead changed hands several times, but the Russian team prevailed 45-43 in a heartbreaker for the U.S. team.

The U.S. foil team of Hanna Thompson (20, Rochester, N.Y.), Erinn Smart (24, New York, N.Y.), Felicia Zimmermann (28, Rush, N.Y.) and Iris Zimmermann (23, New York, N.Y.) lost a close match with France 45-43 in the opening rounds of their 2004 Women’s Foil World Championships, also on Friday. The U.S. women ended the day placing 9th.

Saturday, June 11, hometown hero Ivan Lee added a second medal to his collection from the weekend with an individual bronze, his first in a Grand Prix event, in the men’s saber competition.

Lee, seeded 26th going into the direct elimination table, pulled off a stunning 15-12 upset of 7th-seeded Gael Touya of France in the round of 32. He defeated Rafal Sznajder of Poland 15-13 to reach the quarterfinals and then went on to surprise the no. 2-seed, Alexey Yakimenko of Russia, 15-11.

Lee lost his bid for the finals to 1996 Olympic gold and 2000 Olympic silver medallist, Stanislaw Pozdniakov of Russia, 15-9. Pozdniakov went on to win the gold with a 15-12 defeat of Russian teammate Serguei Charikov.

The excitement for the U.S. team did not end there, however. The Grand Prix concluded Sunday, June 13 with two finals in individual women’s competition and two more U.S. medals.

Iris Zimmermann returned to individual World Cup competition after a two-month hiatus from practice in grand fashion, surprising the international field to earn a bronze after entering the competition seeded 26th.

Zimmermann’s record of three wins, two losses in the pool round left her seeded 41st in the table of 64. She defeated 21-seed Camille Datoo of Great Britain 15-12 and then continued a string of seemingly endless American surprises by defeating the no. 9 seed from Italy Margherita Granbassi 15-13 in the round of 32.

Upset no. 2 by Zimmermann came next: a 15-11 defeat of 8th seed and 2002 World Championships silver medallist Ekaterina Youcheva of Russia. Upset no. 3: a 15-14 squeaker over Korea’s Hyun Hee Nam, the 16th seed who had just taken down the top seed in the competition.

Zimmermann was finally defeated in the semifinals by Eugyenia Lamanova of Russia, 15-13. It was Zimmermann’s first World Cup medal since 2000.

For the grand finale, U.S. fencer Sada Jacobson registered the fifth U.S. medal, a bronze, in the individual women’s saber competition. Jacobson, the top seed and no. 1 fencer in the world, earned her fifth World Cup medal of the season by defeating Leonore Perrus of France 15-8 in the quarterfinals.

She was defeated in the semifinal by Elena Netchaeva of Russia in a frustrating 15-14 bout, misjudging the length of Netchaeva’s final attack by a whisker. Netchaeva went on to win the competition by defeating teammate Sophia Velikaia 15-10.

Stay tuned for more great news about the U.S. fencing team as:

– Jacobson, Tim Morehouse, Felicia Zimmermann go on to compete at the 2004 Titan Games in Atlanta June 18-20;

– a large contingent of U.S. athletes travel to Havana, Cuba for a six-weapon World Cup June 18-25, and

– the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, where fencing competition takes place Aug. 14-22.

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