Copenhagen World Cup comments

[muaddib]

Too bad there was a NAC yesterday. The Copenhagen World Cup was also this weekend. As an old american fencer living in Denmark, I look forward to this tournament every year. I enjoy seeing how the Americans stack up against the rest. The results were as follows:

1 KRUSE Richard GBR
2 OR Tomer ISR
3 MA Jianfei CHN
3 LARI Tommaso ITA
5 ZHANG Liangliang CHN
6 CADOT Jeremy FRA
7 DE LAMBALLERIE Guy FRA
8 STOUKALINE Alexandre RUS

The only american: Kurt Getz came in 19th.

Kruse was the shocker. The french, chinese, russia, italians, are always in the finals, but a brit? He fenced fantastic, the best I've seen him perform. I think he got lucky getting Lari in the semi-final. Lari likes to infight and prepares alot on his attacks. Kruse's counter attacks just ate him up. Plus he was smart to change tactics to parries then back to counters. Fun to watch anyway.

Some photos can be seen here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gyes/se...7612718881306/

The new masks with the electric bibs were required. Crazy idea in my opinion. Most fencers had the clear masks also and some of them had fogging problems. The timing problems seem to be a thing of the past, I didn't notice any direct attacks not going off as they should.

A great tournament in all, just missing some americans and canadians!

Oh well, maybe next year!
- Muaddib

[sionnach]

Kruse was the shocker. The french, chinese, russia, italians, are always in the finals, but a brit?

He's had a fair few last 16s and he came 3rd in this tournament last year so it's not a complete shocker. It's rare to see brits making the top 8 but it is becoming more common.

[muaddib]

True, I knew Richard was "up and coming", but I didn't think he was there yet. No offense to the brits. My danish friends wanted to know who I sided with in the final, Britain or Israel. I had a feeling Richard's long arm and fast retreats would give Tomer a problem, so I said "God save the queen". haha
I was right. Congrats Kruse. Do you know the name of his coach? He sounded Russia or slokic maybe. He was very good I thought. Coaches love watching other coaches for ideas! ha
Cheers,
- Muaddib

[sionnach]

Do you know the name of his coach? He sounded Russia or slokic maybe. He was very good I thought.

His name is Ziemek Wojciechowski, former olympian from Poland.

[muaddib]

Thanks, that just might explain the rise in british fencing!