Caitlin Chang takes third place at Serbian Women’s Epee Satellite Event

Harrogate based teenager (19) Caitlin Chang took a well-deserved bronze medal at the weekend in a tough women’s epee satellite event in Belgrade.

The day didn’t get off to the best start with Chang losing two of her five first round matches leaving her ranked 19^th out of a field of 43.  In the first of the knockout fights, in the round of 32 against Levin (ISR), things hadn’t improved and she found herself two hits down and on the way out of the competition.  However she rallied and managed to gain the advantage seeing out the fight 15-13.

She certainly needed to improve going into her next match against home favourite Jovanovic (SRB).  In the previous round the Serbian had knocked out the number three seed, Shetman (ISR).  However Chang had hit some form and easily dispatched Jovanovic 15-3.  In the quarterfinal she face Sbarcia (ROU) and at the first break found herself 10-3 down.  A strong performance in the second period saw her get back into the fight but she was down 14-12 at the second break.  Showing true grit and determination Chang levelled the score in the third and final period and then bravely attacked to take the winning hit.  In the semi-final she faced another Romanian in Udrea.  Again Chang found herself trailing at the first break, 10-4, and despite a mini-comeback lost the fight 15-10 to the eventual winner.

Udrea (ROU) beat Mihaly (HUN) 15-7 in the final with Marinuk (ISR) joining Chang in the bronze medal place on the podium.

Speaking of her medal winning performance yesterday, Chang said; “I am very happy with this result as I really had to push myself in the rounds and had to test my mental ability.  It really is a good stepping-stone and build up for the World Cup series after Christmas.”  Both Chang and coach, Brian Matless, worked hard for this promising result for a 19 year old.

Full results are here.