COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.– Mariel Zagunis (Beaverton, Ore.) showed this weekend that she hasn’t lost a step since winning her second consecutive individual Olympic gold medal and the team bronze medal in August 2008 at the Olympic Games in Beijing, China. Zagunis won the individual gold medal at the Grand Prix Women’s Sabre competition in Orleans, France. She also led the U.S. team to the gold medal in the team event.
Zagunis is the only member of the bronze medal winning 2008 U.S. Olympic Team for Women’s Sabre Fencing competing during the 2009 season with Sada Jacobson (Dunwoody, Ga.) attending Law School at the University of Michigan, having retired from the sport and Becca Ward (Portland, Ore.) concentrating on school in her freshman year at Duke University. That does not mean that Zagunis is alone in the 2009 season though as she was joined by five other American women at this Grand Prix stop. Monica Aksamit and Daria Schneider finished 23rd and 26th. Dagmara Wozniak (Avenel, N.J.), the replacement athlete for the 2008 U.S. Olympic Women’s Sabre Fencing Team, finished 55th. Ibtihaj Muhammad and Ruth Ann Hacking rounded out the U.S. competitors with 72nd and 86th place finishes.
The men’s sabre Grand Prix event this weekend was held in Budapest, Hungary. Benjamin Igoe (New York, N.Y.) captured the bronze medal in the individual competition to lead the U.S. athletes. Returning from the silver medal winning 2008 U.S. Olympic Team for Men’s Sabre Fencing James Williams (Sacramento, Calif./New York, N.Y.), Tim Morehouse (Bronx, N.Y./New York, N.Y.) and Jason Rogers (Los Angeles, Calif./New York, N.Y.) finished 29th, 36th and 39th respectively. As a team, the U.S. finished in sixth place. Also competing under the U.S. flag were Mihail Etropolski (82nd place), Luther Clement (96th place), John Jakelsky (107th place) and Konate Primus (109th place).
Complete results available at the International Fencing Federation site, www.fie.ch.
Next up for the U.S. men’s sabre fencers is the 2009 Grand Prix in Moscow, Russia, February 12-14. Moscow will also host the Women’s Sabre Grand Prix, February 15-17.