Katherine Holmes went 6-0 in pools and fenced through 4 rounds of elimination matches, earning a bronze finish at the Cadet Circuit in Göteborg, Sweden. In the semifinal round Holmes met up with #2 seed Florina Plachta (GER) where she fell 9-14. Plachta went on to win the event with a 15-8 victory over surprise finalist Pauline Brunner (SUI).
The cadet men’s epee event was won by Frederik Von Der Osten (DEN) with Sergey Bida (RUS) taking silver and Tal Shai (ISR) and Tomaso Melocchi (ITA) sharing bronze. The top finisher for the United States was Lewis Weiss who finished 18th.
Also in Göteborg was the Vigor Challenge, a junior world cup event for men’s and women’s epee. Several top US juniors find themselves in the middle of the NCAA fencing season.
The junior women’s epee event saw strong finishes from Neely Brandfield-Harvey (11th) and Ashley Severson (12th). Sweden’s Johanna Bergdahl took home the gold be defeating Estonia’s Julia Beljajeva. Ricarda Multerer (GER) and Daria Strelnikov (ISR) took 3rd.
The men’s event featured an all Russian final as Anton Adamov upset #4 seed Nikita Glazkov 15-12 in the final. Frenchmen Virgile Marchal and Alexadre Bardenet rounded out the podium earning bronze. 4 of the final 8 were from France. The top US finish was turned in by Jeffrey Miller who took 20th.
