Jacobson Wins Gold in New York City

[Craig]

13 June 2003
For Immediate Release

Jacobson Wins Gold in New York City

Final sabre results of the New York City Gran Prix World Cup are in, and U.S fencer Sada Jacobson (20, Dunwoody, Ga.) has won her first senior World Cup!

Jacobson defeated two-time overall World Cup champion Elena Jemaeva (32, Moscow, Russia) 15-11 to win the gold. Jacobson's sister Emily Jacobson (17, Dunwoody, Ga.) was the second-highest U.S. finisher at 6th. Emily Jacobson was defeated by Jemaeva in the quarterfinals 10-15. Jemaeva fences for Azerbaijan.

Tomorrow: Women's Foil Individual finals, and Women's Sabre Team competition.

New York City World Cup Fencing
June 13, 2003
Women's Sabre
1 JACOBSON Sada (20, Dunwoody, Ga./Nellya Fencers)
2 JEMAYEVA Elena AZE
3T KOENIG Susanne GER
3T SOCHA Aleksandra POL
5 TOUYA Anne-Lise FRA
6 JACOBSON Emily (17, Dunwoody, Ga./Nellya Fencers)
7 PERRUS Leonore FRA
8 BAZHENOVA Irina RUS
9 ARGIOLAS Cecile FRA
10 NETCHAEVA Elena RUS
11 VIGNAUX Pascale FRA
12 TAN Xue CHN
13 JOUKOVA Margarita RUS
14 FERRARO Anna ITA
15 MAKEEVA Natalia RUS
16 NAGY Orsolya HUN
17 MARZOCCA Gioia ITA
18 BIANCO Ilaria ITA
19 ZAGUNIS Mariel (18, Beaverton, Ore.)
20 CARRIER Magali FRA
21 CSABA Edina HUN
22 FEDORKINA Ekaterina RUS
23 ZHANG Ying CHN
24 MIHAI Dorina ROM
25 BENAD Sandra GER
26 GHEORGHITOAIA Catalina ROM
27 KORMILITSYNA Svetlana RUS
28 PAGANO Rosanna ITA
29 JEMAL Alexis (21, Westfield, N.J./Westbrook Foundation/Rutgers '05)
30 BAO Yingying CHN
31 MARY Solene FRA
32 SASSINE Sandra CAN
33 PELEI Andrea ROM
34 SIUGAYEVA Janna AZE
35 HAENTSCH Doren GER
35 VELIKAIA Sophia RUS
37 AMIROVA Elena AZE
38 WIECKOWSKA Irena POL
39 GORST Elizaveta RUS
40 LUCCHINO Alessandra ITA
41 DORON Julie FRA
42 BERENGIER Julie FRA
43 VARGA Dora HUN
44 EIREMO Annika USA
45 TRICARICO Marianna ITA
46 JOZWIAK Bogna POL
47 SCHNEIDER Daria USA
48 WRIGHT Carolyn USA
49 KANEKO Sakura JPN
50 SUN Chao CHN
51 THOMPSON Caitlin USA
52 BOND-WILLIAMS Louise GBR
53 CHN HUANG Hai Yang
54 VOLKOVA Anjela AZE
55 BARATTA Emma USA
56 COVALIU Irina ROM
56 CRANE Christina USA
58 NICOLL Chrysgall GBR
59 HISAGAE Madoka JPN
60 IMAIZUMI Vivian USA
61 PROVIDENZA Valerie USA
62 GAILLARD Amelia USA
63 SHERRY Ketelyn P USA
64 LEE Gyu-Young KOR
65 DUENAS Pilar MEX
66 LEE Shin-Mi KOR
67 BYRNE Siobhan IRL
68 YU Qunli CHN
69 EL GUINDOU Maha FRA
70 PARKER Sarah USA
71 DAVIS Anika USA
72 MUSTILLI Nicole USA
73 BECKER Christine USA
74 STEVENSON Caroline GBR
75 CHO Kyung Mi KOR
76 AGUSTSTDOTTIR Topa ISL
77 JOHANNSDOTTIR Gudrun ISL
78 SAWORSKI Donna CAN
79 OGAWA Naoko JPN
80 KUBISSA Stefanie GER
81 KIM KOR KOR
82 NAITO Erina JPN
83 PADULA Veronika USA
84 SASCHENBRECKER Wendy CAN
85 KADREE Yewande USA
86 BECELIS Angela MEX
87 OVTCHINNIKOVA Olga CAN
88 DE ROUX Jeanette PAN
89 MAIER Diana GER
90 LATHAM Christine USA
91 DEWEY Aislinn USA
92 ROH Kyung Ae KOR
93 ANGELOVA Anna BUL
94 WELLS Carly USA
95 JELLISON Eva USA
96 MARTELL Cristina MEX
97 MILLER Joy USA
98 NAKAMURA Haruko JPN
99 BERO Ursula CAN
100 SIGMARSDOTTIR Sigridur ISL
101 DAVIDSON Beth GBR
102 LACHETA Jessica GBR
103 DE ROUX Jaqueline PAN
104 OGAWA Chiyo JPN
105 PHILLIPS Lauren USA
106 LE Nhi Lan USA
106 WOZNIAK Dagmara USA
108 HUTCHISON Jenny GBR
109 JEKIC Mihaela CAN
110 ESIMAJE NCA


For More Information, Please Contact:
Cindy Bent
US Fencing Media Relations
614.746.6733 * 614.340.7299f USFencingMediaRelations@earthlink.net
www.usfencing.org

[Craig]

Based on the current FIE point standings, Sada Jacobson's finish puts her at the FIE points list.

Current FIE Top 10 (Before NYC):
1 ARGIOLAS Cecile FRA 220 4 48 48 32 40 48
2 JACOBSON Sada USA 215 20 30 12 20 39 28 39 39
3 JEMAYEVA Elena AZE 182 14 39 21 14 12 52 21 21
4 NETCHAEVA Elena RUS 164 32 30 12 14 48 40
5 MARZOCCA Gioia ITA 128 26 21 39 8 16 12 6
6 VIGNAUX Pascale FRA 115 14 3 6 4 21 28 30 12
7 TOUYA Anne-Lise FRA 104 8 6 6 14 16 48 6
8 BIANCO Ilaria ITA 81 8 6 12 26 8 21
9 SOCHA Aleksandra POL 81 2 21 12 20 12 16
10 ZAGUNIS Mariel L. USA 78 8 6 21 2 6 4 12 21

I'll work out the points in a few.

Craig

[Peach]

It was announced during the medal ceremony that Sada is now first on the World Cup points list.

They held it in one of the narrow side galleries of Grand Central Station. When I arrived there at 4:00, it was set up with bleachers either side of a raised piste in the center, with a barricade across the end. All the tickets had been distributed already to officials, athletes and their families. Some of the athletes came up to the barricade and passed their tickets to friends on the other side, so the stands were pretty packed by the time they started. I stood at the barricade at the end of the strip; bad viewing for actions but good for looking at the whole scene.

At 5:00, Andrew Sohn and Katelyn Sherry did a brief demo of sabre for the audience. I didn't catch the name of the announcer, who kept calling Andrew "John" and was enthusiastic and moderately well informed; he kept up a patter throughout the event which at times worked well and at other times was sort of silly. After the demo, they had a flag ceremony with young athletes in whites, and then played the U.S. National Anthem.

They held the women's semi-finals first, then the men's. Medina is my hero because he is a short fencer who did some remarkable things with distance and parries against a taller opponent, but he didn't prevail, so the men's final was Luigi Tarantino against Aldo Montano, two Italians. I heard that Podzniakhov had gone out a good bit earlier, in a bout where he was distinctly unhappy with the refereeing; the referee also worked one of the semi-final bouts. I don't recognize him, though Tarantino addressed him familiarly during the gold medal bout (he wasn't refereeing then) and I wondered if he were Italian.

The gold medal bout between Sada Jacobson and Elena Jemayeva was pretty intense; Sada started out behind, but pulled off a series of touches and the last couple of touches, Jemayeva simply couldn't get away. The crowd was roaring, egged on by people like Tim Morehouse who was in the front row leading chants and clapping.

In the men's gold, Tarantino looked tired and was not moving well, though as usual he mugged, protested, and clowned (so did Montano). Montano had little trouble with him. Tarantino conspicuously and repeatedly rubbed his rear end when Montano hit him, like an old-fashioned dry sabre fencer pointing out that the hit was off target.

As usual with fencing audiences, everybody got up and left when the event they were interested in was over. Half the audience was gone by the time they held the medal ceremonies. It wouldn't hurt you to sit five minutes longer, folks!

[wflaschka]

Wow, Peach! Excellent report! You didn't happen to take any p-p-pictures...?

[Peach]

Thanks! My knees hurt from standing so long. No, I didn't bring my camera, sorry. There were scads of photographers around, though. Hopefully someone took some to share.

[Peach]

Woo-hoo! Article in the NYT about Sada and Emily:

Pre-Olympic Success for an Elite Sister Act
By GLORIA RODRÌGUEZ

They are not quite the Serena and Venus Williams of fencing, but 20-year-old Sada Jacobson and her 17-year-old sister, Emily, are getting close.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/14/sp...ts/14FENC.html

[ra2000a]

As a spectator like peach, i also had to stand behind the barricade watching the bouts. whatever peach said was truly correct. my favorite fencer would have to be aldo montano. he is truly a great fencer and thinker. i love his styles. yea basically even more than half the crowd left for the ceromony. i actually got to sneak into one of the bleachers to watch the ceremony. it was really cool.

[Craig]

1 JACOBSON Sada USA 224
2 JEMAYEVA Elena AZE 200
3 ARGIOLAS Cecile FRA 184
4 NETCHAEVA Elena RUS 176
5 MARZOCCA Gioia ITA 128
6 TOUYA Anne-Lise FRA 119
7 VIGNAUX Pascale FRA 115
8 SOCHA Aleksandra POL 111
9 KOENIG Susanne GER 90
10 PERRUS Leonore FRA 90

14 JACOBSON Emily USA
17 ZAGUNIS Mariel L. USA
21 BECKER Christine USA
28 GAILLARD Amelia USA