|
First day Medals; Junior Worlds
By Cidny Bent Findlay // U.S. Fencing Association // April 10, 2007
On the first day of the 2007 Junior and Cadet World Championships, Portland’s Rebecca Ward successfully defended one of her three 2006 titles and earned the U.S.’s first gold of the Championships.
Enzo Castellani, a 16-year-old from Keller, Texas, won the team’s first bronze in the Cadet Men’s Foil event.
Ward, 17, won the Cadet Women’s Saber title with a resounding 15-4 victory over Russia’s Anna Illarionova.
Ward clearly owned the day. Her closest match came in the semifinals with a 15-12 win over Illarionova’s Russian teammate Olga Kharlan.
The fencing world is watching closely to see if Ward also defend her Under-20 and Junior Team titles. Those events will take place on Friday, April 13 and Monday, April 16.
Ward’s U.S. teammate Caroline Vloka (16, Upper Saddle River, N.J.) was unable to reach the medal podium this year; she lost in the round of 64 to Mihaela Bulica of Romania 15-9. Vloka earned the silver last year.
Monica Aksamit (17, Matawan, N.J.) reached the round of 16 with a 15-11 victory over Rossella Gregorio of Italy, but fell in her next bout to Azza Besbes of Tunisia 15-12.
Castellani, seeded 4th after the initial round, lost only to Tommaso Lari of Italy in the semifinals, 15-12.
Gerek Meinhardt (16, San Francisco, Calif.), seeded 7th after the initial round, was upset in his second direct elimination bout by 26th seed Seung Bae Jeon of Korea 15-8.
Ariel DeSmet (16, Portland, Ore.) also reached the round of 32 before being defeated by Jean-Paul Tony Helissey of France 15-10.
The Championships continues tomorrow with Cadet (Under-17) Men’s Saber and Cadet Women’s Epee.
Results are below. For more information see http://www.fie.ch/External_Data/
2007 Junior and Cadet World Fencing Championships
Belek, Turkey
April 10-18, 2007
April 10 results
Cadet (Under-17) Women’s Saber
56 Competitors
1 WARD Rebecca (17, Portland, Ore./Oregon Fenc. Alliance/home school)
2 ILLARIONOVA Anna RUS
3T BESBES Azza TUN
3T KHARLAN Olga UKR
5 BUJDOSO Alexandra GER
6 LEE Ra Jin KOR
7 NIKULINA Victoriya RUS
8 GUARNERI Paola ITA
13 AKSAMIT Monica (17, Matawan, N.J./Fencers Club)
39 VLOKA Caroline (16, Upper Saddle River, N.J./Fencers Club)
Cadet (Under-17) Men's Foil
86 competitors
1 MIAKE Ryo JPN
2 LARI Tommaso ITA
3T CASTELLANI Enzo (16, Keller, Texas/Fenc., Inst. Of Texas)
3T SERRI Cedrik FRA
5 JEON Seung Bae KOR
6 KIM Hyo Gon KOR
7 OSMAN Wassim ROU
8 KONTOCHRISTOPOULOS GRE
18 MEINHARDT Gerek (16, San Francisco, Calif./Massialas Found.)
22 DESMET Ariel (16, Portland, Ore./NorthWest Fencing Center)
For More Information, contact:
Cindy Bent Findlay
US Fencing Media Relations
614.746.6733 * USFencingMediaRelations@earthlink.net * http://www.usfencing.org/
|
