http://greenvilleonline.com/news/spo...2111131408.htm
TANYA ACKERMAN/Staff
Oba Simmonds (left) heads to victory over Enej Bajgoric.
WANT TO GO?
What: North American Cup fencing competition
When: Today, 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m.
Where: Palmetto Expo Center
Events: Epee, foil and sabre
Admission: Free
Young fencers compete for titles
By Ann Green
STAFF WRITER
agreen@greenvillenews.com
Just four months after Greenville was host to one of the largest Summer National Championships ever held, the U.S. Fencing Association has brought top young competitors in the sport to town for the North American Cup.
The cup is the first of a series of national competitions held each year throughout the U.S.
The four-day event involving some 800 athletes concludes today at the Palmetto Expo Center.
The tournament features men's and women's Junior (under-20) and Cadet (under-17) competition in foil, epee and sabre, the three weapons in fencing.
Canadian fencer Shena Sabbath, 19, of Winnipeg, Manitoba, has been involved in the sport for six years, three in sabre, her current concentration.
She said she was first exposed to fencing as a Girl Guide. "That's like a Scout," she said. "At one of the camps I went to, they had different sports, and I tried fencing. I thought it was cool."
Sabbath
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Sabbath was among the more than 20 fencers sent to the Greenville competition by the Canadian Fencing Federation.
"Our federation selects people to go to world championships based on how they do in these competitions," she said.
Oba Simmonds of East Orange, N.J., had an added incentive for doing well in Greenville in the epee competition.
The 18-year-old fencer at Rutgers University said his mentor is six-time Olympian Peter Westbrook, the last U.S. fencer to win a medal at the Olympics (bronze medalist at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles).
"I'm trying to do well because he will definitely get onto me if I don't," said Simmonds.
The better that the U.S. competitors do in the North American Cups, the better their chances to earn spots on U.S. teams selected to go to World Cadet, Junior, Senior and Veteran World Championships and the World University Games.
NORTH AMERICAN CUP
At Palmetto Expo Center, Greenville
Sunday's Results
Junior Women's Savre:
1. Emma Baratta; 2. Shena Sabbath; 3. (tie) Emily Jacobson, Lauren Phillips.
Cadet Women's Foil:
1. Emily Cross; 2. Abigail Emerson; 3. (tie) Doris Willette, Adrienne Nott.
Junior Men's Epee:
1. Tigran Bajgoric; 2. Jean-Pierre Seguin; 3. (tie) Martin Lee, Benjamin Ungar Benjamin. Others -- 68. Alex Psimer (Greenville), 112. Adam Barrett (Greenville) 115. Wallace Howard III (Columbia); 116. Jackson McClam (Columbia).
- it's because I know the kids like having their names spelled right in public.
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