Aug. 9, 2013
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Courtesy Nicole Jomantas, USA Fencing (Budapest, Hungary) - London Olympian Miles Chamley-Watson (Philadelphia, Pa. / New York City, N.Y.) made history tonight when he became the first U.S. man ever to win an individual Senior World Fencing Championship title.
The foil fencer who placed fifth at the 2010 Senior Worlds and was been ranked as high as #2 in the world in 2011, was seeded 17th at the start of the Senior Worlds and won four straight bouts to advance to tonight's semifinal bout.
In the evening semifinals, Chamley-Watson defeated 2012 Olympic Team Champion Valerio Aspromonte (ITA), 15-9. He followed the victory with a 15-6 win over Artur Akhmatkhuzin (RUS) - a three-time medalist on the 2013 World Cup Circuit. In earlier rounds, Chamley-Watson opened with a 15-12 victory over Bojan Jovanovic (CRO) in the table of 64 and put U.S. fans on the edge of their seats over and over and over again as he won the next three bouts by 15-14 scores - all in come-from-behind fashion.
Among Chamley-Watson's wins, the 2013 Penn State graduate defeated 2012 Olympic Team Champion Giorgio Avola (ITA) in the table of 32, world #3 Alexey Cheremisinov (RUS) in the table of 16 and two-time Senior World medalist Sebastian Bachmann (GER) in the quarter-finals.
Flash quotes from Miles Chamley-Watson
On winning gold ...
"It feels great to win. I had a lot of close bouts today and I'm extremely happy my last two weren't that close. It's the first gold medal in men's foil ever for the U.S. and I'm happy I was able to do it."
On whether his win against Akhmatkuzin was easy ...
"No, it wasn't easy! He's a great fencer and the last time I beat him it was 15-14, so I'm happy I was able to win."
On whether he expected to win Senior Worlds...
"I knew that I had worked hard and could maybe get a medal, but I'm extremely happy I was able to win. I knew that my preparation was very strong. I felt great in the pools. I can't say I expected to win, but I expected to do well and, in this case, well means winning."
On his strategy for the semifinals and finals...
"I didn't want any more 15-14s. I had a fair amount of luck during the day and knew that I was going to have to win a bout by more than 15-14. I was happy that I was able to do it and that my last two bouts were my best bouts of the day."
On being more laidback during the final two bouts...
"Once I got to the semifinals, I knew I had a medal, so there was a lot less pressure and I just went out and had fun. What was the worst that was going to happen? I'd still have a medal. [Laughs] I was able to go for more actions and have a lot of fun in the last two bouts which I can't really say I had in the first three."
On Monday's team competition...
"I'm going to rest up and hopefully help my team win another gold medal."