(DUBAI, United Arab Emirates) — The sound was equal parts relief and pride. After Lauren Scruggs (Peter Westbrook Foundation/Harvard University) secured her final touch in the gold medal match of junior women’s foil at the 2022 Junior & Cadet Fencing World Championships in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, she let out a scream that could be heard throughout the Hamdan Sports Complex.
“It feels great,” Scruggs said after the match. “I’ve kind of been stressed with school and everything, so to have another world champion medal is realy great.”
Yes, another.
Scruggs is now a five-time world champion. She won two medals at this same event in 2019 — a gold in junior women’s foil and a gold in cadet women’s foil. A year before that, she was part of the gold medal-winning junior women’s foil team.
And in Dubai, she added another team medal to her collection — her fifth overall. She won gold alongside Maia Weintraub (Fencers Club/Fencing Academy of Philadelphia/Princeton University), Zander Rhodes (V Fencing Club/Columbia University) and Rachael Kim (Top Fencing Club).
At the end of the foil competition in Dubai, Team USA maintained its lead in overall medals with a total of 10. Italy has the next most with seven. After Team USA’s saber athletes earned six medals to open the tournament, Team USA’s foil athletes added four more – two gold and two bronze.
The bronze medals went to Chase Emmer (V Fencing Club) in individual junior foil and Andrew Chen (Bluegrass Fencers’ Club) in individual cadet foil. Chen beat Italy’s Mattia De Cristaforo, 15-9, in the quarterfinals to make the cadet medal round, and Emmer defeated Great Britain’s David Sosnov, 15-8, in the same round for the junior men.
The U.S. men’s junior foil team of Emmer, Bryce Louie (Los Angeles International Fencing Center/University of Pennsylvania), Brandon Li (Marx Fencing Academy) and Daniel Zhang (Star Fencing Academy) finished in an impressive fifth place after beating Great Britain, 45-30, in the 16 before losing to Hungary by a single touch, 45-44, in the quarterfinals.
In team events at this tournament, all places are fenced from the round of 16. For Team USA, that meant a chance for redemption after the quarterfinal loss. The Americans were placed in a mini-bracket to determine fifth through eighth place, and Team USA bested Uzbekistan and Korea to finish fifth.