SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: July 15, 1989
With two days left in a two-week event dominated by the usual countries, a pair of aging fencers have struck a resounding blow for the new United States policy in the world championships at Boettcher Concert Hall.
In becoming the first Americans since 1958 to advance to the round of eight, Peter Westbrook of Brooklyn, 37 years old, and Donna Stone of Englewood, N.J., 32, have scored one for the United States Fencing Association’s revised approach to competing and financing, which gives the edge to practicality over pure amateurism.
Six other Americans, who, like Westbrook and Stone, hold full-time jobs and fence part-time, reached the round of 32, as well.
And in women’s foil, three competitors from Massachusetts -Caitlin Bilodeaux, Mary Jane O’Neill and Molly Sullivan -placed an unprecedented 20th, 22d and 24th, respectively, in a field of 88. They also captured the gold, silver and bronze in the Pan American Games, which are being held concurrently with the world championships. Setting Sights Still Higher
”Mind you, we’re not pleased with the top 24 as opposed to the top 8, but every mile starts with the first step,” said the United States team captain, Carl Borack. ”This would have never happened without World Cup experience.”
For the first time, the association helped finance World Cup trips for the fencers and made the trips mandatory.
”The more we ask of the athletes, the more we have to be willing to give them,” said Sam Cheris, the president of the association, ”because even when they get time off from work, they are not getting paid.”
With a budget of $800,000, up from $200,000 before the 1984 Olympic Games, Cheris’s proposal to reward results with financial support was approved last August by the association’s board of directors.
The investment has paid off. Westbrook’s performance came in the saber competition, which was scored electrically rather than judgmentally for the first time. Stone’s achievement came in the inaugural women’s epee.
Forty-one countries and 490 competitors are taking part in the tournament, held in the United States for the first time since 1958 and the second time ever. It was organized in 100 days by Cheris and his wife, Elaine, an Olympic fencer, after the original host city, Indianapolis, dropped it because of administrative complications.
Going into tonight’s competition, West Germany and the Soviet Union led the medal count with seven and six, respectively, including four gold held by the Soviets.
But there were some surprises. One came in saber, where the 1984 and 1988 Olympic gold medalist and the defending world champion, Jean Francois Lamour of France, was knocked out in the early rounds by Westbrook, the oldest fencer in the 89-man saber field. Grigory Kirenko of the Soviet Union captured the gold.
The performance by Westbrook was more impressive than his winning the 1984 Olympic bronze because all of the Soviet-bloc powerhouses, who boycotted the 1984 Los Angeles Games, were here.
According to Borack, the accomplishments of Westbrook and Stone, who was eliminated in the quarterfinals by the gold medalist, Anja Straub of Switzerland, are related as much to the change in the status of the events as to the change in financing. The women’s epee was never held before because the weapon was considered too heavy and dangerous.
”We are improving, but it is not necessarily the meteoric rise of our program that put those two people in the finals,” Borack said. ”Our women were in the epee from the ground floor; we are one of the countries that started it.”
Westbrook clearly benefited from the objective scoring system, which replaced the policy of having touches judged by five officials. First Such Gathering
”Reputation went a long way in saber,” Borack said. ”When we fenced the Chinese, the Japanese, the Koreans, the South Americans, we probably got the same kind of benefits over them that the Europeans got over us.”