Capital Fencing Academy (Bethesda, MD) celebrates a series of wins at the 2026 Summer National Championships in Portland, OR, this month with fencers taking home more than a dozen medals in across almost as many events, including multiple national championship medals.
Capital’s Sophie Liu, a U.S. World Team member who won gold at 2025 World Championship in the team event and current student at Yale University, took second place in the Division I women’s saber event, continuing her ongoing impressive performance this season.
Capital’s veteran fencers (the 40+ categories) had a range of commanding performances, with numerous qualifications for veteran world championships, including:
Nick Ferrara, V40 men’s sabre national champion, US veteran men’s sabre world team
Pietro Ferraro, V40 men’s sabre bronze medal, US veteran men’s sabre world team
Rad Szulim, V50 men’s sabre bronze medal
Chris Matt, V60 men’s sabre bronze medal, US veteran men’s sabre world team
Ron Thornton, V60 men’s fifth place, US veteran men’s sabre world team
Garik Gutman, V70 men’s sabre national champion; US veteran men’s sabre world team
Jeannine Bender, V70 women’s sabre national champion; US veteran women’s sabre world team
Capital’s Nick Ferrara, Ron Thornton, and Chris Matt, along with Lilov Fencing Academy’s Dmitri Kapylov, also struck gold, winning first place in the veteran combined team event with their team, the Troublemakers. The team also took gold at the February 2026 North American Cup as well.
Capital’s younger fencers also had outstanding performances, with Rana Dhar and Rian Wei both winning national championships in their Y14 events. Rian also took fifth in the cadet men’s sabre event and Gloria Yi won bronze and earned her E26 as well.
Congratulations to all of our fencers on their outstanding successes this season!