Top sixteen finish for Honeybone

Seoul, Korea was the host city for the latest Sabre Grand Prix, an event which represented the last chance for fencers to qualify for the Rio Olympic Games via ranking points.

Women’s Sabre

Katherine Kempe was the only British fencer to line up for this event where she was part of the field of one hundred and thirty-three athletes.  She won two of her six first round fights which was not enough for her to qualify for the elimination stages.

Yana Egorian (RUS) won the event beating Jiyeon Seo (KOR) 15-10 in the final.  The bronze medals went to Sofya Velikaya (RUS) and Vassiliki Vougiouka (GRE).

GB placing:  Kempe 103.

Full individual results.

Men’s Sabre

Six British fencers were involved in this event making up a field of one hundred and forty-four.  James Honeybone made an impressive starting winning all but one of his six first round matches.  That meant he earned a bye directly to the round of 64.  Will Deary (V4D2) and Curtis Miller (V4D2) both did enough to qualify directly to the second of two preliminary qualifiers.  Kirk Slankard (V2D3) and JJ Webb (V2D3) made it out of the poules but had to fence in the first preliminary.  Alex Crutchett (V1D5) did not make it out of the poules.

Low (HKG) beat Slankard 15-9 and Bolade Apithy (FRA) defeatd Webb 15-9 in the first preliminary.  In the second, Repetti (ITA) beat Deary 15-12 and Motorin (RUS) took out Miller 15-13 leaving Honeybone as the only remaining GB fencer still in.

A strong outing saw the Brit progress 15-7 over Savich of Russia.  Honeybone then faced Dolniceanu (ROU), started badly but put in a stunning comeback performance to beat the World number two, 15-12. Occhiuzzi (ITA) was his next opponent and despite a continuation of his great form, the Italian – fighting for Olympic qualification – went through 15-13.

Last year’s Junior World Champion, Eli Dershwitz (USA) won the event, beating Mojtaba Abedini (IRI) 15-9 in the final.  Diego Occhiuzi was joined by Nikolay Kovalev (RUS) in the bronze medal position.

GB placings: Honeybone 15, Miller 70, Deary 72, Webb 99, Slankard 100 & Crutchett 119.

Full individual results.