After a month off from world cups the US men’s saber team continued its historic season right where it left off with with another top 8 finish in Bangkok, Thailand. Ivan Lee finished 6th with victories over Froylov of Kazikstan 15-12 to make the 32, Christian Krause of Germany 15-7 to make the top-16 and then Konuisz of Poland 15-14 to make the 8 before falling to Yakimenko of Russia 15-9. This was Lee’s 3rd top 8 of the season including 3rd place in Istanbul Turkey and 8th in Athens. He was ranked 11th in the world going into the tournament.
In addition to Lee’s results, Tim Morehouse finished in the top-16, and James Williams, Keeth Smart and Jason Rogers all won their first bouts to advance to the top-32 before losing close matches. All 11 US fencers entered in the tournament made the top-64.
Commenting on the trip Lee said, "It was a great trip overall. USA Men’s Saber continued its stellar season with another finalist. We now have had finalists in 7 consecutive world cups. We do, however, have bigger goals. We want to win a world title and an Olympic medal, so we have much more work ahead of us." Lee also commented that, "Our next goal is to start making enough points so that we can qualify for the women’s saber national team… right now, I don’t think any of us has enough points to do so."
This tournament was the 7th straight tournament with a US men’s saber fencer advancing to at least the round of 8. During that streak 6 out of 7 of those competitions have also included at least one other US fencer in the top-16. Ben Igoe, James Williams and Tim Hagamen have all advanced to the round of 16 in a tournament this year. Ivan Lee, Keeth Smart, Jason Rogers and Tim Morehouse have all had at least one top-8 finishes.
The race for the national team is also very tight with 7 fencers posting results that in any other year would be enough to qualify by a large margin. Commenting about the results this year Jason Rogers said, "Top 32 used to be a big result for any of us, but this year you lose in the top-32 and you think you had a bad competition. Its been a powerful change in thinking for us."
The US men’s saber group is hoping to turn their individual success into success for the team as team qualification for the 2008 Olympic games will begin in two weeks with critical team events in Madrid, Spain and Padova, Italy.
Speaking on the upcoming qualification tournaments Morehouse said, "The expectations and possibilities have never been higher for the US men’s saber group, but we also know that we face strong challenges in the months ahead. I think we are all looking forward to seeing how far we can go together." The US team will fence with Ivan Lee, Jason Rogers, Tim Morehouse and Tim Hagamen in Spain as US National Team Member and two-time Olympian Keeth Smart will be getting married. In Italy, the team will fence with Ivan Lee, Keeth Smart, Jason Rogers and Tim Morehouse.
