John Lin Wins U.S. Fencing National Title

Brunswick’s John Lin won the Y-12 sabre event at the USFA National Championships in Salt Lake City earlier this month. Lin, a rising seventh-grader at Brunswick who entered the preliminaries as the top seed in a pool of 172 participants, won the championship in a nail-biting title match, 15-14.

Joining Lin at nationals were classmate Alden Reals and rising ninth-grader Cameron Evans. Both competing with the foil as a weapon, Reals finished 12^th out of 208 fencers in the Y-12 division, while Evans, competing in the Y-14 classification, finished 40^th out of 279 competitors. 

 

In the finals, the first fencer to score 15 points is declared the winner.

Lin began the championship with an auspicious start, taking an early 3-1 lead. However, Lin's left-handed opponent, the tournament’s fifth-seed, rallied to score the next five points to take a 6-3 advantage.

Despite the setback, the Stamford resident responded to take the next three points and tie the bout at six. As the contest advanced, neither player in the championship mustered more than a two-point lead as the back-and-forth action reached its exciting conclusion.

Trailing 12-10, Lin rallied to win the next four points and build a 14-12 lead — just one point from the title. However, Lin’s challenger countered to take the next two points, knotting the title bout at 14 and setting up a sudden-victory scenario for the fencers.

On the championship point, Lin won the title on his signature parry riposte, countering his opponent’s attack with a block and a quick touch for the national title.

The path to the title for Lin started in pool play, as Lin cruised to a 6-0 record in the first-to-five point bouts. Despite the undefeated mark record, Lin allowed eight touches, or points, in pool play, pushing the preliminary top seed to ninth for the ensuing direct-elimination rounds, commonly called tables in fencing.

In the first three tables, Lin advanced with scores of 15-3, 15-8, 15-6. The three victories allowed Lin to advance to the table of 16, where he dispatched the seventh-ranked player in the direct-elimination rankings (15-8), before sending the top-seeded player packing in the quarterfinals with a 15-7 win.

In the semifinals, Lin bested the nation’s fourth-ranked player by a 15-11 margin to reach the championship bout.

The national title caps Lin’s campaign in the Y-12 age group, as the soon-to-be Brunswick seventh-grader moves into the Y-14 division this fall.  Lin, who was unranked earlier in the year in Y-12 action, finished the season ranked second overall in the division. The national title was Lin’s sixth gold medal finish of the season. Heading into the Y-14 age group this fall, Lin projects to be ranked in the top 10 in the older division.

Lin was coached by members of the Brunswick-Greenwich Academy’s varsity fencing staff, Alex Fotiyev and Oleg Tretyak.