VIRGIN ISLANDS FENCING RETURNS TO OLYMPIC GAMES IN KRUZ EPEE

NEWS

VIRGIN ISLANDS FENCING RETURNS TO OLYMPIC GAMES IN KRUZ EPEE

Jun 12, 2024

Virgin Islands fencing will return to the most important sporting event in the world, with the qualification of Kruz Schembri, only 17 years old, in a sport that his country had not been to the Olympic Games in the last four decades.

Kruz defines his qualification to Paris 2024 as “incredible”, during a conversation with Centro Caribe Sports for the HUELLAS project, who also shared details of his life as an athlete.

Influenced by his mother who belongs to a fencing club where they live, Schembri made the right decision to leave a legacy in his career, who always dreamed of being in an event like the next Olympic Games.

“Since I started fencing, I saw myself qualifying for the (Olympic) Games, I worked hard to achieve it,” said the world junior champion.

Los Angeles 1984 represented the first time for Virgin Islands fencing, with four athletes qualifying in all three weapons, including Julito Francis, James Kreglo and Alayna Snell in foil, Jim Kerr in epee. Kreglo also competed in sabre.

THE FOOTPRINTS OF KRUZ

His footprints representing the Virgin Islands began recently, in 2022, during the Junior Pan American Championships in Lima, Peru, where he intended to enjoy that process.

Kruz, in that first tournament of his career as a high-performance athlete, placed sixth in the U-20 individual epee category, and eighth in the U-17 individual epee.

In that same 2022, he was world champion in the U-20 individual men’s epee, at the World Cup held in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Schembri had a 2023 crowned with the world sub-championship at the World Championships in Plovdiv, Hungary, in the U-17 individual epee, which served as a platform to achieve his ticket to the Olympic Games in Paris 2024.

In addition to being in Hungary, he also competed in the Pan American Cadet and Junior Championships in Bogota, Colombia, and in the Central American and Caribbean Games in San Salvador, and the Pan American Games in Santiago.

COSTA RICA, A SPECIAL PLACE FOR KRUZ

San Jose was again the scenario where Kruz Schembri was crowned champion, but this time in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament, defeating the Mexican Diego Cervantes to win the quota for Paris 2024.

Schembri, who was used to compete in the epee modality during his beginnings, for the events of 2023 and all those of this 2024, included the foil, weapon with which he qualifies to the Olympic Games.