British Richard Kruse wins foil event in Havana's Grand Prix

HAVANA, Cuba, Mar 14 (acn) British Richard Kruse won the title at the Villa de la Habana Fencing Grand Prix in the strong men's foil tournament hosted by PABEXPO fairgrounds in this city.

Kruse, eleventh in the world rankings, beat 15-5 Alaaeldi Abouelkassem, from Egypt, in a final match that was easier than expected.
Referring to this win, he told ACN that his rival, London 2012 Olympic runner up, is a good fencer who has defeated him several times, so he was surprised to win with such advantage.
Now- he clearly said in Spanish-, I want to share with my Cuban girlfriend and then follow my training to get in good shape to the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
On his way to the crown, the British defeated 15-14 in the quarterfinals American Alexander Massialas, silver medalist last year and current leader of the list of the world; while in semifinals he beat 15-12 French Jean-Paul Tony Helissey.
Abouelkassem, meanwhile, won 15-12 the other semifinal over Race Imboden, holder of the contest in 2013.
Tony Helissey and Imboden earned the bronze medals in a competition that brought together 141 contestants from 37 countries.
In the case of Russian Dmitry Rigin, champion in the last two editions of the tournament and who appears fourth in the universal ranking, he could hardly achieve one win and was eliminated 14-15 by British Marcus Mepstead.
Cuba did not include any of its representatives in the group of 64, with Humberto Aguilera as the one with the best performance in the position 84th, followed by Riuben Jay (100), in an event with a high level that featured some of the best foil fencers in the world.