For the second straight weekend an American woman won a silver in a fencing grand prix event. Last weekend it was Mariel Zagunis in sabre in Moscow, this weekend it was Lee Kiefer in foil in Shanghai. Kiefer started off in dominant fashion with 15-6, 15-7, and 15-5 before a close, if you can call it that, 15-11 win to reach the semifinals. Kiefer again breezed 15-5 in the semifinals but finally ran into trouble in the final where she was defeated 15-8 by Arianna Errigo of Italy. Also finding some success for the US was Nzingha Prescod. She won her first two matches 15-12 and 15-10 but lost 15-7 to France’s Ysaora Thibus in the round of 16. Getting upset in the first round was Nicole Ross 15-13 by Colombia’s Saskia Loretta Van Erven Garcia and also losing was Madison Zeiss 15-15 to Hungary’s Fanny Kreiss.

On the men’s side advancing from the preliminary competition was a 50-50 proposition for the Americans. Drew Johnston and Axel Kiefer both advanced from pool play but had diverging paths in their knockout match. Both were scored 15-10 but Johnston was on the wrong end to Austria’s Johannes Poscharn Ig and Kiefer was victorious over Japan’s Daiki Fujino. Kiefer joins the four other Americans, Alexander Massialas, Gerek Meinhardt, Race Imboden, and Miles Chamley-Watson, in the table of 64 for Sunday’s competition.

Previous Fencing World Cup Coverage:
Moscow Recap
Day 1 Update