The United States Women’s Sabre Team defeated Korea 45-39 to take the gold medal at the Algers Grand Prix. This come from behind victory capped off a successful weekend for the US team as Sada Jacobson also won the individual event.
Schermaonline, the Italian fencing news site, has posted an interview with US Women's Sabre fencer Rebecca Ward. (Photo courtesy FencingPhotos.com)
Rebecca Ward is the 2006 Turin World Championship women’s saber gold medalist. She is the first fencer and likely she will remain the only one to win a triple crown by earning the Cadet, Junior, and Senior World Championship titles in one year (2006) at the incredibly young age of 16. She is home schooled and is ready to start her college education at Duke University this fall after the Olympic Games in Beijing.
March marks the last month for earning points to qualify teams and individuals for the 2008 Olympic Fencing competitions in Beijing.
The last Men's Epee team competition was held in Stockholm on March 9th, which sealed the fate for the US squad and one more event remails for the men's and women's sabre squads to attempt to change their seeding, but at this point most of the team spots are set.
Dagmara Wozniak nurtured a single victory in the first day seeding round into a silver medal at the Budapest Women's Sabre World Cup. Sada Jacobson earned a 3rd place finish and Rebecca Ward lost to winner Aleksandra Socha (Poland) to take 5th.
The US Women's sabre team won an important Olympic qualifying event this weekend in both team and individual competitions by defeating Russia in the team finals to take the team gold medal at the Orleans Grand Prix.
Earlier in the weekend, the US women shined on the individual stage, with Rebecca Ward (pictured, left) and Sada Jacobson fencing for the individual final. Ward won the match, solidifying her position as the #2 ranked fencer in the world behind China's Xue Tan.
What do you get when you have the Nike design team create a brand new shoe for your sport?
How about something that is 20% lighter than other shoes on the market, engineered for extreme durability, and created with new design elements that make the "mainstream" shoe design teams go "hey, I want to put that in our shoe too!"
Recently, fencing.net had the opportunity to talk with Sean McDowell, the Creative Director for Nike’s Olympic Footwear, about the shoe, the Ballestra, that Nike has been developing for the last 18 months.