US Fencing Team picks up silver medal at the Tallinn World Cup – Fencing update
On Sunday, 6th March, The United States Fencing Team emulated their performance at the 2010 Epee World Championship of Paris by winning the silver medal in the Tallinn World Cup. It was the second silver finish in a world championship platform for the USA
men’s Epee Team and the first medal victory at the Word Cup. The US Fencing team has been included in the top 10 ranked teams of the world since 2009. The US team members including Benjamin Bratton, Cody Mattern and Seth Kelsey, who have qualified for the
second round with an automatic first round bye based on their win.
The US successfully overcame Canada at the table of 16 with a 30-20 final score which was reached by a blazing final 10 point streak. In the quarterfinal they faced the Polish team who had advanced after beating Venezuela in the previous round. An exciting
match took place between both teams as they tied the score at 44-44. The tie was finally broken by the US fencer, Bratton, who got the deciding hit on his opponent to give his team a stunning victory. The win against Poland qualified the US team for the semifinals.
France fought against the USA team in the semifinal match. France was the same team who defeated the USA in 2010 World Championship’s final. The USA Squad avenged their 2010 loss with a 45-40 victory over France. In the finals, the Russian fencers were up
against the US team. Both teams played very well and the match was even at 26-26. Russia squeaked by with a single point, 27-26 to take home the gold.
Third place match was played between China and France, in which France walked away winners. Chin slumped to fourth place. Poland and Norway fought for the fifth spot and Poland won the match and dropped Norway to sixth place. Estonia and Ukraine were placed
at seventh and eighth respectively.
In Men’s Epee Individual event of Tallinn Sword, 246 athletes from 26 countries played the championship at Estonia on 4-6 March. Germany’s Jeorg Fiedler won the championship and was ranked first with gold medal. He played the final round against Grumier
Gauthier of France, who could not win the final and was crowned with silver medal. Netherland’s Bas Verwijlen lost the semifinal round against Fiedler and got third place with bronze medal. Similarly Nikolai Novosjolov of Estonia lost his semifinal against
silver medalist Gauthier and he was placed at fourth position in the championship. Hungarian Geza Imre, Russian Anton Avdeev, Switzerland’s Benjamin Steffen and Korean Jin Sun Jung, all competed in the quarterfinal, but could not win that round. They were
placed at fifth to eighth positions respectively.
Three of USA fencers, Seth Kelsey, Cody Mattern, and Jimmy Moody qualified for the table of 64. Only Cody Mattern could win this table and moved to the next table. He earned the top USA finish by ranking at 22nd in the overall championship.
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