Women’s Sabre A-Grade England Trophy 2011 concludes – Fencing Update
The Crystal Palace National Sports Centre in London saw the Women’s Sabre England Trophy 2011 which took place February 25-27.
The team events took place on the final day, as the individual Women’s sabre events were held during the first two days of this exciting and highly competitive tournament.
The fencers that were to take on those that had gotten an automatic bye to the top 8 included Olga Kharlan (UKR), Chrystall Nicoll (GBR), Gioia Marzocca (ITA), Charlotte Lembach (FRA), Mariel Zagunis (USA) and Sophie Velkaia (RUS).
However, fencers Irena Weckowska (POL), Sophia Velikaia (RUS), Ekaterina Diatchenko (RUS), Mariel Zagunis (USA), Olga Kharlan (UKR), Galyna Pundyk (UKR), Gioia Marzocca (ITA) and Svetlana Kormilitsyna (RUS) all made it into the competitive
top 8 of the tournament.
With their brilliant performances, Sophia was to face Olga as Gioia faced Mariel to advance into the next round.
The Ukrainian Olga managed to beat the Russian Sophia 15-14 as the Italian Gioia put in a tremendous effort to defeat USA’s Mariel 15-12. It was going to be Olga to face Gioia in the exciting final.
With an impressive score of 15-11 the Ukrainian Olga defeated the Italian Gioia to take the Individual event title of England’s Sabre Trophy. The Russian Sophia and the American Mariel shared the third spot.
The Chinese Women put in a tremendous effort as they managed to take first in the team event followed by the Russians in second and the Polish in third.
The top 4 teams on the last day events included Italy, Poland, Russia and China. To advance, China beat the Italians 45-35 as the Russians defeated the Polish with a 45-38 score. It was China facing Russia in the final with China dominated
the Russians 45-36 to take the trophy.
Poland managed to beat Italy 45-44 to take the bronze medal in the tournament.
The tournament was successful, as the match-ups were exciting and many were very tough battles which were won in the last minutes. The Chinese showed off their dominance in the team events as the individual events were dominated by
the hard working Ukrainians.
During the tournament, it was interesting to see that the fencers from England were not in the top 10 of either the individual or team events. With the 2012 London Olympics around the corner, England will be looking to get their Men’s
and Women’s fencing teams up to par if they are to compete at the highest levels.
Only time will tell which fencing teams and individual fencers manage to use this tournament and the other events scheduled in the coming months to get in some valuable match practice for the ultimate prize of Olympic gold.
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