Race Imboden defeat Alexander Massialas in Men’s Foil Individual at Pan American Zonal Championships
The United States' team is showing tremendous performance in the Pan American Zonal Championship as they are clinching all the gold medals in the Individual competitions. The third day of Pan American Zonal Championships featured a gold medal win for the
foil fencer, Race Imboden.
The US fencer, Imboden, took the gold medal victory over Alexander Massialas in the final bout on the third day of Pan American Zonal Championship. The third day competition started on July 6, where pool matches and direct elimination tables were conducted
in the Men’s Foil Individual and Women’s Epee Individual competitions. Total 36 fencers from 11 nations participated in the Men’s Foil competition. The pool matches were divided into six pools with six fencers in each pool.
Imboden started his day with pool matches as the number one seeded in pool 4. Imboden took the victories in all the five bouts of pool matches and qualified for direct elimination table. His undefeated bout in the pool matches an automatic bye in the table
of 32 and he started as a number third seeded fencer from the table of 16. Defeating Canadian, Anthony Prymack, in the table of 16 with 15-8 touches, Imboden qualified for quarter-final. The 2010 Cadet World Medallist, Imboden faced United States' Miles Chamley-Watson
and defeated him with a score of 15-11.
The semi-final opponent, Daniel Gomez of Mexico, was not so difficult to beat for Imboden as he qualified for the final bout after achieving 15-10 victory. The 2010 Junior World Champion member of American Foil Team, Massialas was Imboden’s final opponent
in the competition. Imboden said about his final bout against Massialas, “I know Alex is extremely quick and I was going to have to have my legs under me and be ready.”
When Imboden got lead of five points in first bout, he got the momentum and amazingly dropped Massialas after scoring all 15 touches with the loss of only eight touches.
Imboden said on his victory, “I always come in to every competition to win, no matter what level it’s at, and I can only do the best I can and not worry about anything else.”
As it was 2012 London Olympics qualifying event so Imboden was ranked first in the competition with 32 ranking points. Massialas was ranked second and was awarded the silver medal. Another American, Gerek Meinhardt, was honoured with a bronze medal as he
was dropped in the semi-final round.
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