The US Men’s Foil squad earned silver at the 2009 Junior World Championships, losing to favorite Italy 45-33 in the final round. The Women’s Epee team bested Hungary 45-40 to take the bronze medal on the last day of competition.
{sidebar id=1}Men’s Foil: Path to Silver
The United States needed a combination of skill and luck to get past Russia in the semi-final round. The MTF match with Russia went into the last bout tied 36-all. Gerek Meinhardt anchored the US squad and faced off against Dmitry Zherebchenko.
The final bout started off very cautiously with Zherebchenko scoring 1:15 seconds into the 3 minute bout to put Russia up 37-36. Meinhardt would counter 30 seconds later to knot the score back at 37. Gerek would follow up with another touch with 1 minute remaining in the bout. Zherebchenko would battle back, putting Russia up 39-38. Meinhardt went on a 4-0 run to put the US up 42-39 but was unable to hold the Russian off.
Facing a 3-0 run from Zherebchenko, Meinhardt was able to last until the overtime period with the match score tied at 42. The one minute overtime period started with Meinhardt holding priority. In overtime, if neither fencer scores, then the match goes to the fencer with priority. Priority did not matter this time, as Meinhardt clenched the victory with a winning touch 22 seconds into the overtime period, giving the United States a 43-42 victory.
USA vs. Italy: Gold medal bout
Italy bested the US team 45-34 and completed a sweep of the men’s foil titles – having already won the individual cadet and junior world titles. Gerek Meinhardt started the US squad off in the lead winning his first bout 5-3 and Alex Massialas got a rough start giving up 5 straight touches before holding on to keep the US ahead 10-9 in the second. 45 seconds into the 3rd match Italian Giorgio Avola went up 11-10 on Miles Chamley-Watson, and from there the Italians never looked back.
Zain Shaito came in off the bench to give the US team a spark, winning his bouts 6-5 and 9-5, but that effort was not enough as Tommaso Lari closed out the match with a 5-3 win over Gerek Meinhardt to end the match 45-33.
The US Men’s Foil Team consisted of Gerek Meinhardt(San Francisco, Calif.), Alexander Massialas(San Francisco, Calif.), Miles Chamley-Watson(Philadelphia, Pa.), and Zain Shaito(Garland, Texas/Team Event).
US Women’s Epee
The US women’s epee squad of Courtney Hurley (San Antonio, Texas), Susannah Scanlan (St. Paul, Minn.), Francesca Bassa(Houston, Texas), and Hannah Safford (San Francisco, Calif./Team Event) took 3rd today in the final day of fencing at the 2009 Cadet & Junior World Championships in Belfast, Ireland.
The US squad entered the day seed 6th and easily dispatched Canada 35-26 in the opening round of fencing. In the quarterfinals the US faced off against 3rd seeded Ukraine.
Hurley led off with a 5-2 victory over Pantelyeyeva. Scanlan and Bassa would each add to the lead to end the first cycle of bouts with the US up 14-6. The Ukrainian team would get no closer than 6 points for the rest of the match, which the US easily won 45-35.
Russia would pose different problems for the US team. After several close bouts that kept the match score within 3 touches, Violetta Kolobova took out the US hopes with a 12-6 bout over Francesca Bassa to put Russia up 27-20 in the 6th bout. Russia’s Kolobova was the story of the match, leading all fencers with 30 touches scored and a +14 indicator.
The other semi-final was a lopsided match with #1 seed Poland winning over Hungary 45-28.
Hannah Safford started for the US squad in the bronze medal bout and boosted the US to an early 5-2 lead. Courtney Hurley would add to that lead and put the US up 10-4. Francesca Bassa and Susannah Scanlan (who came back in for Safford) rounded out the first four bouts to put the US up 20-17.
The Hungarians would slowly creep back into the match and Dorina Budai took at 2-0 bout vs Scanlan to tie the match at 35-all. Hurley dominated the 9th bout with a 10-5 score over Edina Antal and led the US to a 45-40 bronze medal victory over Hungary.
