How many 18-year-old freshmen entering Notre Dame in less than 2 weeks will be able to say that they not only went to Beijing this summer, but they competed amongst the most elite athletes of the world and were able to hold their own? Well, we know at least one.
Gerek fenced Egypt's Mostafa Nagaty in the Round of 32 at 10:30a.m. yesterday morning and had completely demolished Nagaty by 10:35a.m. Before facing each other on the Olympic platform, Meinhardt and Nagaty had faced each other twice and each claimed victory once. In this bout, however, there was never any doubt that Gerek was taking this one. Nagaty scored the first touch, but that was just enough to get Gerek fired up. Meinhardt went on to score the next 10 touches in a row and ended up winning the bout 15-3. And this was supposed to be hard? Gerek fenced with such confidence and intensity, he looked like anything but a teenager, and was able to move on to the Round of 16.
The second bout for Gerek was found to be a little bit more challenging, though, as he faced the hometown hero, China's Zuh Jun. As the crowd roared "Jai You," Gerek still remained strong and after the 1st round, the score was 6-5 with Zhu only ahead by one touch. In the 2nd round, the score was quickly tied 8-8, but then Zhu scored 4 quick touches in a row, and went on to win the bout 15-9.
Gerek accomplished all that he wanted to, and wasn't disheartened by the 2nd bout's results at all. He ended up 10th overall and has thoroughly enjoyed his visit to China. Just hours after his competition we went to the Super Store in the Olympic Green and wandered around other entertaining venues that displayed everything from Jesse Owens shoe to Australian swimmer, Ian Thorpe's full-body swimsuit that is now the norm in swimming competitions.
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