Three Harvard Fencers Compete at the FIE Sabre Grand Prix Boston

Fencing against fields that featured three different Olympic champions and a handful of Olympic medalists over the weekend, three Crimson fencers took part in the FIE Grand Prix at Harvard’s Gordon Indoor Track and held their own against the best saber fencing competition in the world. Harvard’s Eli Dershwitz, who is currently taking a gap year from the University to pursue a spot on the United States’ 2016 Olympic squad,fenced his way to a 21st-place finish after reaching the round of 32.

With the next Olympic games less than a year away, the two-day Grand Prix was one leg of the nine-city tour, and the only saber Grand Prix to be held in the Americas.

“It’s really a great opportunity for Harvard to display its world class fencing,” Crimson coach Peter Brand said. “This is a really important competition…it’s an Olympic trial, a real Olympic trial, and having it at Harvard is just a wonderful opportunity to showcase fencing…. Having three of our fencers competing is an added bonus.”

In what would be his final direct elimination bout of the tournament, Dershwitz drew a round of 32 matchup against Korea’s Junghwan Kim, the No. 2 men’s saber fencer in the world.

With the score at 13-13 after Dershwitz had climbed out of an early 3-0 hole, it seemed as though the Harvard fencer was knocking on the door of an upset. Two-straight touches by Kim, however, ended the underdog’s tournament.

Harvard fencer Eli Dershwitz (left) faces off against Korea's Junghwan Kim, the No. 2-ranked men's saber fencer in the world. By Caleb Lee

The bout, however, demonstrated Dershwitz’s knack for sticking around even after an early deficit. After surrendering the first three touches and looking uncomfortable with Kim’s speed and quickness, Dershwitz jumped right back into the bout with two quick touches.

Kim would respond with a 6-2 run that stretched his lead to 9-4, but a run of Dershwitz's own brought the score to 10-9 in Kim’s favor. The next touch seemed to go to Kim after a jumping attack from the Korean, but upon review, the judges determined that Kim had crossed his feet during the course of the attack, which is an illegal action in saber fencing.

Despite the ensuing yellow card, Kim would go on to end Dershwitz’s run after controlling the distance and pushing Dershwitz back down the strip on numerous occasions towards the end of the direct elimination bout.

A 2015 NCAA Individual Saber finalist, the Sherborn, Mass., native maintained his No. 2 ranking in the United States and top-20 ranking internationally with his performance. With only the top two American saber fencers qualifying for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016, the Olympic qualifying event was important for Dershwitz to tighten his grip onto one of the spots.

And with the elimination of the current top-ranked American and 2012 Olympian Daryl Homer in the table of 64 by a 15-12 score to Bolade Apithy of France and third-ranked Jeff Spear’s loss in the same round, Dershwitz was able to further solidify his spot in the rankings amidst a stressful qualifying season.

“There’s a lot of pressure on him because, to be honest with you, right now it’s all fencing,” Brand said. “When he was here last year at the University, he had other things…. Now [he’s] strictly focused on fencing by taking the year off, and it is more pressure.”

With the top-16 internationally ranked fencers in the world exempt from the initial pool bouts, the 20th-ranked Dershwitz was just outside of this cutoff but made the most of his Saturday afternoon. Other than a 5-3 loss to IlyaMotorin of Russia, Dershwitz cruised through the initial five-touch bouts, finishing with a 5-1 record and a plus-13 touch indicator. His 31st seed out of 159 total fencers after this round secured him a bye from the initial direct elimination bouts.

Matched up with 34th-seeded Gabriele Foschini of Italy in the final table of 64, Dershwitz maintained control of the tempo for much of the bout. Although he was forced to retreat on multiple occasions—and surrendered a few touches while in this position—Dershwitz maintained his composure. He jumped out to an early 3-1 lead en route to a 15-9 victory.

Along with Dershwitz, junior co-captain Adrienne Jarocki and senior Aliya Itzkowitz stepped into the Gordon Indoor Track to fence against some of the world’s top women’s saber fencers, most of whom already compete professionally.

“It’s really funny [and] a really strange thing for us to have these two worlds collide,” Itzkowitz said. “There are people here who I’ve known [from] fencing them around the world, and it’s kind of hilarious to see them at my school, but it’s cool and ideal for us.”

Junior saber fencer Adrienne Jarocki chats with Harvard coach Peter Brand in between bouts at the FIE Sabre Grand Prix. Jarocki claimed her second NCAA title in her collegiate career. By Michael D. Ledecky

Itzkowitz, a native of London, England, was not competing for the Crimson on this occasion. Instead, the three-time All-American competed as one of the 12 fencers representing Great Britain at the Grand Prix.

After dropping her first two bouts by scores of 5-0 and 5-2, the British competitor rattled off four straight pool bout wins. However, her competition would be cut short in her first direct elimination bout against Milagros Pastran of Venezuela by a 15-8 score.

Seeded 156th out of 156 female fencers coming into the event, a product of her recent focus on primarily collegiate events, Jarocki finished her pool play with a 3-3 record and a plus-7 indicator, good enough for a 74th-seed. The 2014 NCAA Individual Saber gold medal winner from Middle Village, N.Y., faced Kata Varhelyi in her first direct elimination bout of the Grand Prix.

The bout would turn out to be her first and last, as Jarocki’s run ended against the 110th-ranked Hungarian fencer by a 15-11 bout score.

—Staff writer Caleb Y. Lee can be reached at caleb.lee@thecrimson.com.