Kruse makes top 16 at St Petersburg World Cup

Six British fencers took part in the latest World Cup on the Men’s Foil circuit last weekend amongst a field of one hundred and sixty-two.  Richard Kruse, by virtue of his World ranking, had a bye directly to the round of 64.  James-Andrew Davis (V4D2), Glen Ostacchini (V3D3) and Harry Bird (V2D4) progressed through the first round but Ben Peggs (V1D5) and Matthew Billing (V0D6) did not.

Davis’s first round performance earned him a bye through the first of two preliminary qualifiers and he was joined in the second by Ostacchini who beat Kang (KOR) 15-13.  Bird was eliminated 15-5 by Khamzin (RUS).  Neither Brit was able to join Kruse on day two of the event as Davis fell 15-9 to Zherebchenko (RUS) and Files (CRO) beat Ostacchini 15-11.

Flying the British flag alone, Kruse beat Cegielski (POL) 15-4 in the round of 64 and then Ha (KOR) 15-14 before losing 15-7 to Paroli (ITA) in the round of 16.  Daniele Garozzo (ITA) beat teammate Andrea Cassara in the gold medal match as Cheung Ka Long (KOR) and Timur Safin (RUS) collected the bronze medals.

The sixteen countries entered into the team event did not include Great Britain.  France took the gold medal by beating Russia as the USA beat Italy for the bronze medal.

Full individual results here.

Full team results here.