Junior & Cadet Worlds Day 1: Will Morrill Takes Junior Men's Saber Silver
Published
The 2026 Junior & Cadet World Championships opened in Rio de Janeiro with more than 1,600 athletes from 109 countries, closing out the 2025–26 junior and cadet season. Day 1 belonged to an American saber fencer in his final Junior Worlds appearance.
The 2026 Junior & Cadet World Championships opened in Rio de Janeiro with more than 1,600 athletes from 109 countries, closing out the 2025–26 junior and cadet season. Day 1 belonged to an American saber fencer in his final Junior Worlds appearance.
Silver in Junior Men's Saber
Will Morrill (Scarsdale Fencing Center, Columbia) took silver in Junior Men's Saber — his best finish at a Junior World Championships, after bronze in 2024 and 17th in 2025.
On the way to the final he beat Ahmed Hesham (Notre Dame), the 2026 NCAA Men's Saber champion, in the semifinal.
A podium habit
Morrill's world championship record is remarkable for its consistency across age categories:
- Cadet bronze — 2022, Dubai
- Cadet gold — 2023, Plovdiv
- Junior bronze — 2024, Riyadh
- Junior silver — 2026, Rio
Four podiums in five World Championship appearances.
Two weeks that would define most seasons
The silver capped an extraordinary run. Morrill took NCAA bronze in 2026, then won his first FIE senior gold roughly four days before Junior Worlds began, then medalled in Rio. Senior and junior schedules rarely align that kindly, and stacking three results like that requires travel recovery as much as fencing form.
Other U.S. results
Junior Men's Saber:
- Emilio Gonzalez — 5th
- Silas Choi — 23rd
- Shaun Kim — 25th
Junior Women's Saber:
- Charmaine Andres — 19th
- Dora Zhang — 22nd
- Brynnley McKee — 25th
- Sophie Liu — 34th
Two days later, Morrill, Gonzalez, Choi and Kim won the Junior Men's Saber team title together: Day 3 in Rio.
The collegiate connection
Morrill fences for Columbia; Hesham, the opponent he beat in the semifinal, fences for Notre Dame — the men's NCAA team champions that same season. For a saber family thinking about college, that overlap is the point: the NCAA season and the international junior season are fenced by the same athletes, and recruiting attention follows results on both. See Notre Dame's men's NCAA team title.
Related reading on Saber Nation
- Day 3 in Rio: Junior Men's Saber team claims a fourth straight world title
- All USA Fencing news for saber fencers
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Official USA Fencing source: 2026 Junior & Cadet Worlds Day 1: Will Morrill Earns Junior World Silver in Men's Saber, Capping Epic Two-Week Run — published April 1, 2026.
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