Davis and Halsted reach top eight in China

James-Andrew Davis and Laurence Halsted continued their preparation for the Rio Olympic Games in fine style at the weekend, finishing fifth and eighth, respectively at the Shanghai Foil Grand Prix.

Halsted went into the competition ranked 35^th in the World so had to compete in the preliminary stages.  He won five of his six first round matches which earned him a bye to the second preliminary knockout, where he beat Ferjani (TUN) 15-11 to make day two and the round of 64.  He went on to beat Essam (EGY) 15-10, Meinhardt (USA) 15-13 and Paroli (ITA) 15-11 before losing 15-6 in the quarterfinals to Lee Kwanghyun (KOR).

Davis had a bye to the round of 64 due to his place in the World rankings – 5 – thus beginning his campaign on the second day.  He beat Lee H (KOR) 15-10, Lefort (FRA) 15-9 and Tony Helissey (FRA) 15-13 to make the quarterfinal stage where he lost 15-9 to Chen Haiwei (CHN).

These results mean that Davis has moved up to number four in the world and Halsted up to number 25.  Alexander Massialas (USA) dominated the gold medal match beating Lee (KOR) 15-5 in under two minutes.  Alessio Foconi (ITA) joined Chen (CHN) in the bronze medal position.  See the full results here.

Richard Kruse was making his first competitive appearance since having to pull out of the last event because of injury.  His promising top 32 finish was matched by Marcus Mepstead.  Ben Peggs also attended the event but was unable to progress past the poule stages.

Great Britain did not have any entries to the women’s event which was won by Arianna Errigo (ITA).  She beat Lee Keifer (USA) 15-8 in a one-sided final.  Martina Batini (ITA) and Ysaora Thibus (FRA) picked up the bronze medals.  See the full results here.

There is just one more senior international event ahead of the Olympic Games – the European Champions in Torun, Poland.  Find our more about the event here.