World Cup Round Up – St Maur Women’s Epee & Budapest Women’s Foil
Sheppard finishes 32nd benefitting from performance analysis implemented by Newton
The final weekend of Olympic qualification by world ranking saw GB fencers competing in France and Hungary.
Women’s Epee World Cup – St Maur
St Maur welcomed 156 fencers from around the world including twelve from Great Britain to take part in their World Cup Epee competition. Six British fencers fell after the first round – Cohen (V1D5), Harvey (V0D6), Highton (V1D5), H. Lawrence (V1D5), MacKinnon (V1D5) and Smith (V0D6). The others went through – Albini (V5D1), Chang (V3D3), C. Lawrence (V3D2), McGeever (V3D3), Radford (V3D3) and Usher (V3D3). In the first of three preliminary knockouts to make the second day all six remaining Brits received a bye. In the second preliminary knockout stage Tol (NED) def Chang, Lugounova (RUS) def McGeever, Danithe (FRA) def Radford and Van Loon (USA) def Usher whilst Albini def Shasharina (RUS) and C. Lawrence def Lugo (VEN). Unfortunately both Albini and C. Lawrence fell at the next stage to Goram (FRA) 15-8 and Dinu (ROU) 15-12 respectively.
The event was won by Samuelsson (SWE) who beat Sun (CHN) 15-10 in the final. The bronze medals went to Flessel-Colovic and Kirpu (EST).
At the team event on Sunday Great Britain lost 40-32 to Hong Kong in the round of 32 to finish 18th. The event was won by Russia who beat the USA 45-33. Germany beat Italy 45-39 to take the bronze medal.
GB individual placings: Albini 68th, C. Lawrence 84th, McGeever 134th, Usher 134th, Chang 141st, Radford 143rd, MacKinnon 185th, H. Lawrence 195th, Highton 199th, Cohen 205th, Harvey 217th and Smith 224th.
Women’s Foil World Cup – Budapest
Eight British fencers headed to Hungary to join a field of 156 at the World Cup in Budapest. Cook (V0D6), McKenzie (V1D5), Ng (V1D5) and Troiano (V1D4) did not survive the poules stages. Emanuel and Sheppard received byes through the first preliminary knockout fight whilst Bentley defeated Herve De Ferron 15-12 but Bennett (V2D4) lost 15-8 to Mormandi (ARG). In the second preliminary knockout Bentley fell 15-7 to Erven Garcia (COL) and Emanuel lost 7-6 to Shi (CHN). Sheppard made the round of 64 beating Kreiss (HUN) 14-12. On day two Sheppard faced world number 10, Boubakri (TUN). She spent some time with Performance Analyst, Dai Fulcher, reviewing video footage of the Tunisan before the fight and it paid off. Sheppard beat her opponent 10-6. In the round of 32 Sheppard lost 9-4 to Yakovleva (RUS).
The event was won by Vezzali (ITA) who beat Shanaeva (RUS) 15-8 in the final. Biryukova (RUS) and Errigo (ITA) took the bronze medals.
In the team event Great Britain received a bye through the round of 32 but then lost to Korea 45-22. Great Britain then lost 32-22 to Ukraine, beat Japan 26-24 and Mexico 39-28 to finish 13th. The event was won by Italy who beat Russia 45-32. The bronze medal went to Korea who beat Poland 37-30.
GB individual placings: Sheppard 32nd, Emanuel 73rd, Bentley 95th, Bennett 114th, Troiano 120th, Ng 130th, McKenzie 139th and Cook 144th.
The window now closes on Olympic qualification by world ranking. Richard Kruse qualified via this route but the remaining top British fencers must now wait to find out who the Performance Management Group will select to compete at the zonal qualifying competition in Bratislava on April 21st, 2012.
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