Tim Morehouse promoted fencing and his meal sponsor Bistro MD on Access Hollywood yesterday and posted the video on his blog:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWqe2MUwlJ4

Among the tidbits from Tim's clip:

• Listing of actors/actresses who've done fencing, including Jerry O'Connell who was captain of the NYU Fencing Team


• Fencing burns 600 calories per hour


• Great workout for the butt & thighs


• Qualification for the London Olympic Games starts soon

We're also thrilled that the sabre fencing masks and jacket used came from Fencing.Net.  (Yeah, I slowed down the video to check!)

[caption id="attachment_2386" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Lee Kiefer. Photo S.Timacheff/FencingPhotos.com"][/caption]

Lee Kiefer defeated Nzingha Prescod for the second time this weekend to claim the gold medal in the Division I Women's Foil event at the Dallas NAC (North American Cup.)  Earlier in the weekend the two met in the finals of Junior Women's Foil to the same result. The score in the Division I final was 12-7.

In the Junior (U20) division, Kamali Thompson won 15-8 over Erica Zhao in women's sabre and in men's epee Alexander Eldeib beat Canada's John Wright 15-11.

The Cadet (U17) events concluded with men's sabre.  Shaul Gordon (CAN) defeated Gordon Long 15-11 in the final bout.

This was the 4th of 6 North American Cup events held across the country for the 2010-2011 fencing season.  In Dallas, over 3,000 fencers competed.  Several foreign competitors attended from nations including Israel, Canada, Great Britain, Mexico and more.

Competitors in these events are vying for spots on the US Senior, Junior, and Cadet teams which will travel to their respective World Championships.

Results Summary:

Division I Women's Foil
1. Lee Kiefer
2. Nzingha Prescod
3. Jacqueline Dubrovich
3T. Emily Cross
5. Ambika Singh
6. Margaret Lu
7. Doris Willette
8. Adi Nott

Junior Women's Sabre
1. Kamali Thompson
2. Erica Zhao
3. Faizah Muhammad
3T. Lian Osier
5. Francesca Russo
6. Skyla Powers
7. Kara Lee
8. Margaret McDonald

Junior Men's Epee
1. Alexander Eldeib
2. John Wright (CAN)
3. Joseph Wiley
3T. Simon Jones
5. Justin Yoo
6. Peregrine Badger
7. Alex House
8. James Kaull

Cadet Men's Sabre
1. Shaul Gordon (CAN)
2. Gordon Long
3. Travis Clarkson
3T. Geoffrey Loss
5. Peter Pak
6. Christofer Ahn
7. Miguel Breault-Mallette (CAN)
8. Eli Dershwitz

The Hurley sisters, Kelley and Courtney, took 1st and 2nd in the Women's Epee event at USA Fencing's Dallas North American Cup. In the final bout Kelley defeated her younger sister 15-11. 2010 US team member Lindsay Campbell and Caroline Piasecka (NOR) took bronze.

[Full Story]

From US Fencing:

This fourth North American Cup of the 2010-2011 season is being held at the Dallas Convention Center Feb. 14-17. Competition begins at 8:30 a.m. each morning and is expected to run into the evening each day. Over the weekend, more than 3,000 of the nation's best fencers will compete. Several foreign competitors are expected from such nations as Canada, Great Britain, Israel and more.

About North American Cups: NACs held by USA Fencing each year at changing locations around the country. NACs are selection competitions for World Championship teams in the Cadet (Under-17), Junior (Under-20), Senior (Division I), Veteran, and Wheelchair divisions. USA Fencing also holds developmental NACs for Youth in three different age groups, and developmental Division II and Division III events which are open to all ages.

This is the bout that got Gerek Meinhardt (USA) onto the medal stand at the 2010 Fencing World Championships in Paris, France. Gerek faces off against Maor Hatoel (ISR) in the top-8. Earlier in the day, both fencers won upsets as Gerek was the 14th seed and Hatoel the 43rd seed.

In this bout Gerek gets an early lead and doesn't give his opponent a chance to get back into the match.  Keep an eye on the setup for the touch right after the minute break.  This is an example of the "Dictate Points" example from Michael's review of Winning Ugly.

What else did you take away from the match?

[caption id="attachment_3771" align="alignleft" width="84" caption="Nicholas Vomero"][/caption]

The day started at 6am with 258 epee fencers checking in to their events.  In the end Nicholas Vomero would post a couple of upset wins, defeat the same opponent twice and bypass repechage to win the Division I Men's Epee event at the Dallas North American Cup (NAC).

At the same time the Division I Women's Sabre event was held.  Three of the four top spots were claimed by 2010 US National Team members Ibtijah Muhammad, Dagmara Wozniak and Daria Schneider.  They were joined in the medals by Margaret McDonald.  Muhammad defeated Wozniak 15-13 to win the event.  Schneider and McDonald shared bronze.

In the men's epee event, Vomero, who fences for St. John's University, entered the elimination bracket as the 98th seed.  He put together a run of victories including a 15-14 defeat of Byron Neslund.  Neslund would win his repechage bout to make it back to the final 8 where Neslund and Vomero were matched up again!  This time Vomero had an easier time and won the bout 15-7.  In the final bout Vomero edged out Alexander Tsinis with a 13-12 win.

In addition to the Division I events were one Junior (Under 20) and two Cadet (Under 17) events.  The Junior Women's Foil event provided a possible preview of Monday's Division I event as Lee Kiefer won 9-8 over Nzingha Prescod.  Mona Shaito and Margaret Lu shared bronze.  In Cadet Men's Foil Harrison Bergman won 15-7 in the finals over Leland Bernstein.  Cadet Women's Epee was won by Isabel Ford, who defeated Nina Van Loon 15-11.

Results:

Top 8: Division I Men's Epee

[caption id="attachment_3772" align="alignright" width="245" caption="Vomero in NCAA action. Courtesy Red Storm Sports"][/caption]

1. Nicholas Vomero
2. Alexander Tsinis
3. Kristian Boyadzhiev (BUL)
3T. Teddy Sherrill
5. Byron Neslund
6. Igor Tolkachev (RUS)
7. Marc-Andre LeBlanc (CAN)
8. Kyle Wolfson

Top 8: Division I Women's Sabre

1. Ibtihaj Muhammad
2. Dagmara Wozniak
3. Daria Schneider
3T. Margaret McDonald
5. Celina Merza
6. Faizah Muhammad
7. Sandra Sassine (CAN)
8. Aziza Hassan

Top 8 - Junior Women's Foil

1. Lee Kiefer
2. Nzingha Prescod
3. Mona Shaito
3T. Margaret Lu
5. Jacqueline Dubrovich
6. Sharon Gao
7. Eve Levin
8. Epiphany Georges

Top 8: Cadet Men's Foil

1. Harrison Bergman
2. Leland Bernstein
3. Justin Lee
3T. Harry McGuire
5. Ira Schlosberg
6. John Avendano
7. Drew Johnston
8.  Robert Iverson IV

Top 8: Cadet Women's Epee

1. Isabel Ford
2. Nina Van Loon
3. Audrey Abend
3T. Jessie Radanovich
5. Jessica O'Neill-Lyublinsky
6. Victoria Wines
7. Kimberly Young
8. Madeline Kehl

[caption id="attachment_3553" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Mariel Zagunis repeated as World Champion. Photo S.Timacheff/FencingPhotos.com"][/caption]

Mariel Zagunis (USA) defeated the Ukraine's Olga Kharlan to win the 2010 World Championship in Women's Sabre.  The FIE (finally) has uploaded videos of the world championship finals from Paris, France so US fencers who didn't make the trek now get the chance to watch.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9D3Uoojbcc

Olga and Mariel would fence again a few weeks later at the Fencing Masters NYC demonstration event.

What did you think of the fencing?  Will Kharlan be able to challenge Mariel for the 2012 Olympic Gold?

[caption id="attachment_3752" align="alignleft" width="180" caption="Yuki Ota vs. Lei Sheng in Men's Foil at the 2010 World Championships"][/caption]

The FIE Video YouTube Channel has started uploading some videos from the 2010 Fencing World Championships this week.  Just this morning a women's foil team match was uploaded and now online is the men's foil semi-final match between Lei Sheng (CHN) and Yuki Ota (JPN):

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onuuz7aLBWg

The video starts with the bout score 7-5 for Ota.

Fencing masks come in standard sizes but fencers heads and faces come in many shapes and more size variations than just S,M,L.  One of the top questions we receive about fencing masks has to do with adjusting masks that don't fit quite right "out of the box".  We often find that a quick adjustment will take that "too small" mask into a "fits great" mask.

Here are a couple of downloadable guides to adjusting a standard fit and Leon Paul contour-fit fencing mask.

• How to Adjust Your Fencing Mask


• How to Adjust your Leon Paul Fencing Mask

http://www.fencing.net/3708/selecting-and-using-a-rowing-machine/

Rowing is an efficient and effective low-impact exercise that utilizes the arms, abdomen, back and legs, providing a total-body workout. This activity offers the opportunity for a wide range of training from fat burning and aerobic conditioning to high-intensity anaerobic and interval VO2max training. The rowing stroke is a smooth continuous, non-impact movement. If you have a history of low back pain, special attention must be given to developing proper rowing technique to prevent injury.

[caption id="attachment_3737" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Michael Pederson Photo A.Timacheff/FencingPhotos.com"][/caption]

Mike Pederson has been released from his duties as the National Coach for the US Women's Foil Squad.

Earlier this week posts appeared within Fencing.Net's forums discussing the removal of Pederson as Women's Foil coach.  The email released in the forum, which was from USA Fencing's High Performance Director, Jim Page,

The text of the email (as posted to Fencing.Net):

"I wanted to let you all know that we have decided not to continue Mike Pederson's contract as National Coach for Women's Foil.

Mike has put his heart and soul into the development of Foil Fencing in the US and into trying to develop a strong Women's Foil Program. But it is apparent that those of you who are the top athletes in the program are relying more on your personal coaches for building your plans, developing your technical skills and for support in competition. It is also apparent to us here at US Fencing that we were not going to be able to build a strong Women's Foil Team for London and Rio with the current structure and leadership.

We do not plan to name another National Coach for Women's Foil, rather we are looking at a structure based around a weapon's coordinator and more reliance on and support for your personal coaches. We are going to figure all this out by the end of the first week of January and will get back to you with more information on the program direction at that point. We of course would welcome any ideas you have on how the program can be organized more effectively to support and involve all of you.

For those who were planning on coming to Colorado Springs next week for the testing camp, I apologize for calling that off. We believe strongly in the kinds of support the USOC is looking to provide for us. We will look for a time during the winter when we can reschedule the testing and plan for their involvement with and support for all of you.

We know the timing of this move is difficult. There is very little time left before the qualification for London begins. But we also know you are training hard and preparing well for the year and that our task is to find a way to add value to that process. We will work hard to do that. Thanks for your understanding and support!"

Other coaches of high level athletes declined to comment on the matter, citing their relationships with the national office and concerns over their fencers.  The USA Fencing national office declined additional comment on the firing citing employment confidentiality concerns.

No other programs were affected by this change.

What stands out in this email is the lack of confidence in the Women's Foil squad of performing at the 2012 or 2016 Olympic Games.  Whether the removal of a formal National Coach works for or against the women's foilists will remain to be seen.

The US Women's Foil squad finished 8th at the 2010 World Championships in Paris and is ranked 6th in the world.  As of today, they hold the inside track for qualification to the 2012 Olympic Games being well ahead of regional rivals Venezuela and Canada.  The top US women finished 27th (Lee Kiefer), 28th (Nicole Ross), and 32nd (Nzingha Prescod) in the individual event.

The forum thread linked to earlier in the article contains a pretty good discussion of the nature of a National Coach within other programs (such as Russia or Italy) and the disadvantages to those types of programs in a nation like the United States where the fencing is more fragmented in terms of location.