Things went a lot better for the American men competing on Saturday as all three won at least once and while no one reached the quarterfinals they had a combined 5-3 record. Jeff Spear was the first knocked out as he 15-11 to Aliaksandr Buikevich of Belarus. Eli Dershwitz and Daryl Homer both lost in the round of 16 to semifinalists. Dershwitz lost 15-9 to China’s Yingming Xu, who went on to finish second. Homer lost to Russia’s Nikolay Kovalev 15-14.

In the women’s preliminaries only one of the six American women advanced to the table of 64. Monica Aksamit went a perfect 6-0 in pool play and earned one of the 16 spots straight to the table of 64 from pool play. On the other extreme only one was knocked out in pool play, Celina Merza after going 1-5. All four of the US women who got into the preliminary knockout round lost their match. Francesca Russo 15-9 to Ukraine’s Olena Kravatska, Sarah Merza 15-8 to Italy’s Chiara Mormile, Sage Palmedo 15-14 to China’s Xueqian Zhang, and Kamali Thompson 15-9 to France’s Caroline Queroli. Aksamit joins Mariel Zagunis, Ibtihaj Muhammad, and Dagmara Wozniak in the table of 64 for Sunday’s competition.

Previous Fencing World Cup Coverage:
Moscow Preview
Day 1 Update