US Men’s Epee Team Wins World Championship

The US Men’s Epee Team (Ben Bratton, Seth Kelsey, Cody Mattern, Soren Thompson) defeated France today to claim the world championship in men’s team epee.

Full results of the matches, including bout scores, are available on the official site.  (Be aware, the final bout scores shown on the site did not report the substitutions in the final match.)

Watch the full final team match at the FIE’s YouTube Channel.  The US vs. France match is at 3:42:30 on the timestamp.

The US used positive bouts over their last round to gain a two touch lead on France going into the final bout.  In the final bout, anchor Seth Kelsey held off early attempts by France to even the score, and forced a hectic end to the match as the US ended on time up 44-37.

Early in the match, the French jumped out to an early lead, leaving the US behind 22-16 after 5 of the 9 bouts.  In the 6th bout,Cody Mattern dominated Yannick Borel to an 8-2 bout score to tie the match up at 24-24.  The US substituted Soren Thompson into the final round to start the 7th bout against Ulrich Robeiri.

Thompson won that bout 5-4 to put the USA up 29-28.  After trading touches for most of the bout, Robeiri went for an attack with 3 seconds remaining in the bout.  Thompson was ready with a counter that beat Robeiri and put the US up 29-28.

Lucenay pushed Cody Mattern in the next bout and had Mattern at the end of the strip and continued to press until just over a minute into the bout when Mattern launched a fleche attack that scored and pushed the US margin to 2.  Lucenay pushed again to set up a similar attack from Mattern, but the Frenchman was ready with his counter and pulled France within one touch.  Cody Mattern went on to score again on an riposte into Lucenay, then scored one more attack into an overextended Luncenay to give the US a 3 touch lead heading into the final bout.

In the final bout, France brought in Gauthier Grumier to face off against Seth Kelsey.  Grumier drew first blood with an attack to bring the score to 32-30 for the US.  A double touch followed with 1:24 remaining in the match to keep the lead at 2.

Grumier quickly followed up with an attack to bring the score to 33-32 with 1:14 on the clock.  Seth pressed patiently and forced Grumier back – content to wait and force an action.  With time ticking down, Grumier took his shot, but Kelsey was ready and picked him on the arm while dodging the attack.  The US lead was back up to 2 and there were just 47 seconds left in the match.

Grumier spent the next several seconds setting up an attack, but just as he hesitated, Kelsey launched an attack of his own, catching Grumier unprepared and pushing the US lead to 3.  Looking at the replay, Grumier was about a half-step closer than he should have been, leading to an easy hit by Kelsey.

A similar touch happened next, with Kelsey timing his attack just right and going after Grumier.  On the very next touch, Grumier stepped in, Kelsey did not go back but lunged right into Grumier and extended the US lead to 37-32 with only 22 seconds left.

The next touch was a double which did nothing to the 5 point lead but drained another 7 seconds off the clock.

Forced to press, Grumier pressed forward and looked to run Kelsey down but he missed his first attack and Kelsey nailed the counter.  13 seconds were left but now the US lead was 6.  A quick double-touch followed and then Grumier’s next attack was locked out and the Kelsey had the US up 41-34 with only 10 seconds remaining.

With no options other than to attack, Grumier threw himself at Kelsey repeatedly.  The results were not favorable to France as Kelsey scored on the first, was hit on the second time, and doubled out again to mark the score at 43-35 and 5 seconds on the clock.

Not giving up, Grumier attacked again, scored then attacked and was hit.  Seth ran the last 2 seconds left on the clock to win 44-37.

The US worked through close bouts in the quarters and semis.

Kelsey worked hard all day as the anchor.  In the quarter-finals, the team kept the score close with Switzerland and passed the match over to Kelsey with the US down one touch (19-18).  Kelsey was able to knot the score up with Heinzer at the end of regulation, and then score the winning touch, 25-24 in the overtime period.

In their semi-final match with Hungary, most of the bouts were stalled out and non-combativity calls forced the action through to the final bout with a 10-10 score.  Throughout the match, the only Hungarian who had the green light to score was Geza Imre.  All of the other Hungarians held their bouts to 0-0 until the final bout.  With the match score tied at 7, Kelsey entered the final bout against Gabor Boczko.

The fencers went scoreless in the first minute, forcing a one minute overtime period for the match.  The fencers first scored a double-touch to put the score at 8-8.  Then Boczko scored to put Hungary up 9-8 with 20 seconds left.  A double-touch followed to put the US down 9-10 with only 8 seconds on the clock.

At 5 seconds, Kelsey scored the equalizer to put the US at 10-10.  Since Kelsey had won the flip for priority, by holding onto the tie for the final 5 seconds, he earned a win for the US team.

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“World Fencing Championships – Kiev – © 2012 Serge Timacheff/FIE/FencingPhotos”

From USA Wins Men’s Team Epee – Kiev 2012, posted by on 4/14/2012 (17 items)

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