The USFA is
pleased to announce its team to the Veteran World Championships, to
take place in Sydney, Australia, September 14-16, 2007.
More than 250
fencers from 22 countries will compete in all six weapons at these
World Championships: men's and women's foil, épée, and saber, in two
age categories, 50-59 and 60 and older. See schedule below for event
times and locations.
The members of the
U.S. team were selected at the Summer National Championships in July
in Miami, Fla. based on the two best results at two North American
Cup Veterans tournaments and the Summer National Age Category
Championships.
Forty-six U.S.
athletes will compete from clubs around the country. Many team
members have won medals in previous Championships, including the
2006 60+ Men's Saber World Champion, Paul Apostol.
Apostol is also a
two-time Olympian, and placed 8th at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. He
is a father of four and a coach for the Ramapo High School fencing
team in New Jersey.
For some, fencing
is only one sport among many. Pat Bedrosian (65, Malibu, Calif.) is
a brown belt in jujitsu. Dick Richards (51, Burtonsville, Md.)
placed third in 1999 at the Nike World Masters Golf competition.
Others run marathons, dance, and more.
Many have trouble
fitting fencing into their fascinating lives. Rinaldo Campana (61,
McLean, Va.), a native of Switzerland, is the former head of the
Weapons of Mass Destruction Counterterrorism Unit for the FBI and is
currently a security specialist for the State Department. Sherry
Green (69, Portland, Ore.), a doula, has lived through not only a
major plane crash in 1954 but the 2004 Asian tsunami.
Others are
scientists (Bettie Graham, 65, Washington, D.C.), editors (Patricia
Bedrosian, 65, Malibu, Calif.), illustrators (Jane Eyre, 53,
Mickleton, N.J.), or policemen (Paul Hicha, 50, Mesa, Ariz.).
Captain Paul Levy (70, Lawrenceville, N.J.), a two-time competitor
at the Championships, is retired from the Appellate Division of the
Superior Court of New Jersey.
The first World
Veteran's Fencing Championships took place in 1998. The
Championships are held by the Fédération Internationale d'Escrime,
the international fencing federation. A veteran's men's épée
demonstration event was held at the 1997 World Championships in
Capetown, South Africa. Women's foil was added to the program and
the events became an official Championships in 1998. The
Championships expanded to five weapons in 1999: men's foil, women's
foil, men's épée, women's épée and men's saber, and added women's
saber in 2005.
Stay tuned for
results from the exciting competition. See schedule below for event
times and locations. The competition's website can be found at
www.wvfc07.org.
U.S. ROSTER
Veteran 50-59
Veteran 60+
Men's
Epee
Robert
Chidel (57, Chicago, Ill./Metro Chicago F.C.)
Rinaldo
A. Campana (61, McLean, Va./NIHFC)
Robert
Cochrane Jr. (56, Hobe Sound, Fla./Palm Beach F.C.)
Kazimieras Campe (70, Edgewater, Md./D.C.F.C.)
Walt
Dragonetti (50, Elyria, Ohio/Hooked On Fencing)
Robert
J. Lipp (60, Los Gatos, Calif./Cardinal F.C.)
Dick
Richards (51, Burtonsville, Md./D.C.F.C.)
Ray
Sexton III (64, Round Rock, Texas)
Men's
Foil
Stephen
Gross (51, Fairfax, Va./Baltimore F.C.)
James
Adams (67, Rockville, Md./D.C.F.C.)
Thomas
Lutton (53, Waltham, Mass./Boston F.C.)
Rinaldo
Campana (61, Mc.Lean, Va./Nat. Inst. Of Health F.C.)
Glenn
Pantel (53, Mendham, N.J./Medeo F.C.)
Jan
Patterson (60, Seattle, Wash./Salle Auriol Seattle)
Frank
Thomiszer (53, Nicholasville, Ky./Bluegrass F.C.)
Ray
Sexton III (64, Round Rock, Texas)
Men's
Saber
Paul
Hicha (50, Mesa, Ariz./Salle Diablo)
Paul
Apostol (61, Wyckoff, N.J./Fencers Club)
Rod
Meagher (50, Green Island, N.Y./Wicked Cool F.C.)
Peter
Calderon (64, /DCFC)
Joseph
Streb (55, Columbus, Ohio/Cols. F.C.)
Alexander Kovacs (60, Centennial, Colo./Colo. Fenc. Acad.)
Wang
Yung (57, Bellevue, Wash./Salle Auriole Seattle)
Media 
