Fencers Represent Columbia Well at 2011 World Championships in Italy
10/17/2011 10:40:00 AM | Fencing
CATANIA, Italy - At the Senior World Fencing Championships, some of Columbia's brightest stars helped Team USA earn valuable Olympic qualifying points during the week-long competition.
Current assistant coach and 2010 graduate Daria Schneider was part of the United States women's sabre team that won a bronze medal, defeating Azerbijan to gain a place on the medal stand.
Schneider anchored the team in the final bout vs. Azerbaijan and held off Sabina Mikina to close out the bout with a 45-40 victory for the American team.
The women's sabre team defeated Italy in the quarterfinals prior to a 45-33 setback against Russia, which won gold.
“Last year we fenced France in France and definitely it was hard dealing with the crowd and being in their home country fencing for a medal and this year we fenced Italy in Italy to get into the top four. Italians are crazy for their fencers, but we were able to keep our heads together and fence really well so that was really huge,” Schneider said to USFencing.com after the competition.
Individually, Nicole Ross '11CC finished 14th in women's foil and Nzingha Prescod '14CC, who is taking a year off from school, came in 19th place overall. Ross and Prescod each competed on the four-person U.S. women's foil team, which finished seventh.
Schneider finished 36th overall in women's sabre while fellow alum James Williams '07CC closed the individual competition in 47th place. Williams was also part of the U.S. men's sabre team which ended the competition in eighth place overall.
