For Immediate Release
15 August 2005
Eight U.S. epee fencers have been working hard this week in Izmir, Turkey at
the 2005 World University Games.
On Friday, all four U.S. men’s epee fencers advanced out of pools and
Olympian Soren Thompson reached the second round before being ousted in
individual competition.
A string of tough match-ups in the elimination round was too much for Team
USA to overcome in what turned out to be an extremely deep epee competition
on the first full day of events at the Games.
The hardest-luck fencer on the U.S. squad was Christian Rivera (Bloomfield,
Mich./Ohio State University), who faced four Olympians, including 2004 Gold
medalist Marcel Fischer of Austria, in his six morning pool bouts. Rivera
battled his way through the tough draw and qualified through to the
afternoon. But when the field was seeded for the elimination round Rivera
drew a fifth Olympian in his first round match, teammate Soren Thompson (San
Diego, Calif./Princeton University). Thompson defeated Rivera, 15-3, to
advance to the second round.
"There were four Olympians in my morning pool. I fought but today wasn't a
good day," Rivera said. "I knew today was going to be hard and I was going
to have to fight in every single bout. My intensity level never changed."
In the second elimination round Thompson faced Dmytro Chumak of Ukraine for
the second time on the day. Thompson defeated the Ukrainian, 5-0, in the
opening pool bout for both men in the morning. Thompson fenced aggressively
in the rematch but Chumak jumped out to an early lead and advanced to the
third round with a 15-9 win.
"One of his better actions is going straight to the hand and he hit a few of
those," Thompson said. There were some tight touches in the middle of the
match and having to go after him puts you at a disadvantage.
"It's hard to judge your whole day by the result. Sometimes you draw easier
guys and don't have to fence that well and the result is better while other
times you might be fencing great but you draw the wrong guy. I felt pretty
good. I thought I was fencing well today."
Ben Solomon (Chagrin Falls, Ohio/Princeton University) advanced out of the
pool round with a 3-2 record before falling to Vitaly Osharov of Ukraine,
15-12, in the first round of elimination bouts. Solomon's pool round
included a 5-4 overtime win over Brazil's Athos Schwantes.
"I made adjustments to what he (Osharov) was doing at first but then he made
some adjustments as well and I wasn't able to counter," Solomon said. "He
got one step ahead of me and I made some mistakes that were pretty critical
but overall I was happy with how I fenced."
Kip Cox (San Diego, Calif./University of California-Berkeley) had the
shortest morning of the U.S. quartet as he was placed in a five-man pool
that shrunk to four when one fencer did not show up for his bouts. Cox won
three of four matches in the morning session before falling to Canada's
Tigram Bajgoric, 15-12 in the first elimination round. Cox had to overcome
an equipment delay when his weapon failed and he was forced to switch to a
back-up.
"A delay can have an effect on a bout but in this case it didn't," Cox said.
"Neither one of us really came up with anything new during the delay.
Sometimes a delay will give someone time to come up with something but we
pretty much resumed right where we were and nothing changed."
The men will compete next in the epee team competition on August 17.
U.S. women’s epee fencer Amy Orlando (Brookline, Mass./Notre Dame) turned in
the top performance for the American in the women's individual epee
competition Monday. Orlando went 4-2 in her pool to qualify for the round of
64. From there she advanced to the round of 32 before losing a 15-10
decision to Germany's Lisa Wollinsky. Orlando finished in 25th place in the
overall standings.
Also advancing to the round of 64 was Kerry Walton (Londonderry, N.H./Notre
Dame). Walton went 2-4 to advance out of her qualifying pool. She lost to
Poland's Daunta Dmowska in the round of 64.
"Kerry finished very well and with a little bit of luck could have joined
Amy in the top 32," said U.S. Fencing Team Leader Jeff Bukantz. "Amy's
result was not a surprise to me as she had been competing exceptionally well
in practice. She stayed within her game and employed a very successful
defense game. Hopefully, she'll be able to carry this over to the team
event.”
Other American fencers, Lindsay Campbell (Cambridge, Mass./MIT) and Maya
Lawrence (Teaneck, N.J./Columbia University) both went 1-5 in their pool and
did not advance.
"Based on their national rankings, the results were upside-down today," said
Bukantz. "Maya and Lindsay didn't have their top stuff today. Historically,
when some of your top athletes have off days in the individual they come
back extremely inspired in the team event, which is what we are hoping for."
Next up for the U.S. women is Thursday's team epee event.
Reporting contributed by USOC Media Officer Todd Bell
For More Information Please Contact:
Cindy Bent Findlay
US Fencing Media Relations
USFencingMedia@earthlink.net <mailto:USFencingMedia@earthlink.net>
614.746.6733 * 614.340.7299 fax
www.usfencing.org
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