Sophia Velikaia (RUS) found herself down 11-6 to 2 time Gold Medalist Mariel Zagunis (USA).  She did not give up, however, but fought her way back to knot the match at 14-14 and then won the decisive point.  With that display, she demonstrated that she expects better than 4th at the 2012 Olympics.

Unlike the other weapons thus far all 4 top seeds made it to the final four.  This event was also unusual in that there were no Italians up for medals, though earlier in the day Italy claimed it’s 3rd gold of the World Championships.

The talk of the tournament was Vietnam’s Thi le Dung Nguyen and her race to the top-16.  She opened the day with a stunning upset of Aleksandra Socha (POL) 15-12 and went on to defeat Reka Benko (HUN) 15-13.  Her run would end in the 16 as Irene Vecchi (ITA) defeated her 15-3.  This is the top result for a Vietnamese fencer in world championships competition.

Olympic Sized Bouts

There were several bouts throughout the day that were important for Olympic qualification, but none as directly impactful as the quarter-final match between Ekaterina Diatchenko (RUS) and Julia Gavrilova (RUS).  Russia boasts 3 fencers in the top-10 in Olympic qualification points, but due to this year’s rules only 2 fencers from a county may compete in Women’s Sabre.  The win by Gavrilova in the top-8 put Diatchenko on the outs, trailing by 12 world cup points with half a season left in qualifying, a difficult position to be in for the world’s 6th ranked fencer.

The United States also boasts an overabundance of talent in the event, with 4 women ranked in the top-16.  Today, however, Ibtihaj Muhammad and Daria Schneider were unable to pull of wins in their opening round matches, leaving Dagmara Wozniak the opportunity to help herself along in the qualification process.  Wozniak earned victories over Margarita Tschomakova (BUL) and Dina Galiakbarova (RUS) to make the top-16.  She fell in her bid to make the 8 with a 15-10 loss to World #2 Olga Kharlan (UKR).

Final Results; Women’s Sabre 2011 World Championship

RankNameCountry
1 VELIKAIA Sophia RUS
2 ZAGUNIS Mariel USA
3 KHARLAN Olga UKR
3 GAVRILOVA Julia RUS
5DIATCHENKO EkaterinaRUS
6ZHU MinCHN
7VECCHI IreneITA
8MIKINA SabinaAZE
9BESBES AzzaTUN
10MARZOCCA GioiaITA
11JOZWIAK BognaPOL
12 WOZNIAK Dagmara USA
13STOLTZ MarionFRA
14VOUGIOUKA VassilikiGRE
15NAKAYAMA SeiraJPN
16NGUYEN Thi Le DungVIE
17KIM Ji YeonKOR
18GALIAKBAROVA DinaRUS
19ALASGAROVA AidaAZE
20PERRUS LeonoreFRA
21KUBISSA StefanieGER
22BENKO RekaHUN
23LAKERBAI KarinaBRA
24KIM Keum HwaKOR
25PUNDYK GalynaUKR
26LIU ShanCHN
27LIMBACH AnnaGER
28ZHOVNIR OlgaUKR
29NAVARRO AraceliESP
30GUARNERI PaolaITA
31MARCOS SandraESP
32WIECKOWSKA IrenaPOL
33KHOMROVA OlenaUKR
34SOCHA AleksandraPOL
35 MUHAMMAD Ibtihaj USA
36 SCHNEIDER Daria USA
37CHEN XiaodongCHN
38HUTCHISON JoannaGBR
39VERGNE CaroleFRA
40PAIZI MarinaGRE
41AU Sin YingHKG
42BENITEZ AlejandraVEN
43ZHIVITSA YuliyaKAZ
44BOND-WILLIAMS LouiseGBR
45GRENCH EileenPAN
46FELIX LARA RossyDOM
47PASCU Bianca AlexandraROU
48LEE Ra JinKOR
49FONG Yi TakHKG
50PAGE GabriellaCAN
51KRAVCHUK Iryna AyseTUR
52PEREZ MAURICE Maria BelenARG
53TSCHOMAKOVA MargaritaBUL
54NICOLL ChrystallGBR
55PALFFY PetraISR
56BUJDOSO AlexandraGER
57CONTRERAS PatriciaVEN
58KISIALIOVA VolhaBLR
59WILLIAMS SophieGBR
60BUNYATOVA SevilAZE
61JOHANNSDOTTIR GudrunISL
62KIM Seon HeeKOR
63VILA LaiaESP
64MUNTEANU ElenaROU

 

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