Daryl Homer was the lone American to make the final 4 in the men’s sabre event. Homer was joined by Vincent Couturier (CAN), Phillipe Beaudry (CAN), and Renzo Agresta (BRA). In the semi-finals Homer defeated Beaudry 15-10 and Couturier matched that score against Agresta.
In the final, Homer started strong and went up 8-4 on Couturier (CAN). Couturier made adjustments to his attack and started climbing back into the match. At the end Homer was up 14-12 but Couturier made a final push to tie the bout at 14-all. On the final touch Daryl Homer launched a flunge into Couturier, taking the Canadian’s blade in the process and securing the 15-14 gold medal victory.
Earlier in the elimination table, Ben Igoe secured the #1 seed but fell to Tim Morehouse, who finished pools as the 16th seed, in the round of 16. Morehouse then fell to Beaudry (CAN) in the round of 8. James Williams came out of the preliminary rounds seeded 10th and fell to Couturier in the quarter-finals 15-12.
Women’s Foil
In women’s foil three of the top 4 fencers were from the USA. Doris Willette, Nzingha Prescod, and Lee Kiefer were seeded 1-3 out of pools and Nicole Ross was the 6th seed.
Willette, Prescod, and Kiefer advanced to the final four with convincing victories in their first two rounds. Ross was unable to advanced past the round of 16 with her elimination loss to Columbia’s Saskia Van Erven Garcia, 15-10. She finished 9th.
In the 4, Willette handled Monica Peterson (CAN) with a 15-9 victory to advance to the finals. In the other semi-final bout, Prescod came back from being down 7-2 to tie the match at 10-10 at the end of the 3rd period. Kiefer was awarded priority and won in the over time minute 11-10 with 20 seconds remaining. In the finals, Lee Kiefer defeated Doris Willette 15-11 to win back to back Pan Am titles.
The US men and women will face off against the combined teams on Saturday in the Men’s Team Sabre and Women’s Team Foil events.