The U.S. men's foil fencing team pose for a photo at the 2019 St. Petersburg World Cup on May 5, 2019 in St. Petersburg, Russia.
The top-ranked U.S. men’s foil fencing team closed out the world cup season by taking the top prize as their streak of podium finishes rolled on in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Sunday.
The 45-35 victory over Hong Kong in the gold-medal match was the 11th consecutive podium finish for the 2016 Olympic bronze medalists, and their second gold medal in a row after winning in Cairo, Egypt, in March. They also finished second in Tokyo, third in Paris and won gold in Germany to kick the 2018-19 world cup season off back in November. Race Imboden, Gerek Meinhardt, Alexander Massialas and Miles Chamley-Watson will finish the world cup season as the top-ranked men’s foil team in the world.
The U.S. cruised into the medal round with a 45-26 win over Egypt in the quarterfinals. They easily handled South Korea in the semifinals, winning 45-29, to set up the gold medal match against Hong Kong, which beat France in the other semifinal.
Team USA pounced early and jumped out to a 12-5 lead and were able to maintain a good distance between themselves and their opponents for most of the match. Hong Kong closed the lead to eight points, trailing 34-26, but the U.S. scored the final point of the bout to bring up Imboden, whose world ranking jumped a spot to No. 2 on Saturday after finishing fifth in the individual competition, and he helped set his team up to close things out with a win.
Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
