Posted on January 06, 2016 at 12:00 AM
Weekend Recap, Dec. 14 – Eleanor Harvey Wins Gold in Women’s Foil Satellite Tournament in Turkey
With this weekend’s gold medal in Turkey, Eleanor Harvey (Hamilton, ON) has won her third FIE Women’s Foil Satellite tournament in a row! Harvey defeated Hungarian, Gabriella Hopka-Varga in the final by a tight score of 9-8 to take first place.
Harvey had three wins and one loss in the poules round, and then defeated Elif Erbil from Turkey 15-4 in the round of 32. Harvey defeated Edina Knapek from Hungary in the 16’s by a score of 11-6, and then faced fellow Canadian Kelleigh Ryan (Ottawa, ON) in the round of 8. Harvey came out on top by a very close score of 9-7 which put her in the medal round where she easily defeated Olga Leleyko from the Ukraine 15-5 to advance to the final.
Ryan had a strong tournament, winning all of her poule matches, earning her a bye to the tableau of 16. Her loss to Harvey in the quarter-finals put her in fifth place overall. Shannon Comerford (Saskatoon, SK) finished 22ndfollowing her 11-8 loss to Venezuelan Isis Gimenez in the round of 32.
With her win, Harvey earned an important four points towards Olympic qualification and has moved into the top Pan Am zone qualification spot, just one point ahead of Venezuelan Gimenez in the adjusted Olympic rankings.
Canadians also competed in the FIE Sabre Grand Prix tournament in Boston this past weekend. Top Canadians were Joseph Polossifakis (Laval, QC) and Shaul Gordon (Richmond, BC) who finished 68th and 84th respectively. Polossifakis had a strong poules round with three wins and one loss which advanced him directly to the 128’s, but he lost his next match to Thanh An Vu from Vietnam 15-9 to finish 68th overall. On the women’s side, Marissa Ponich(Edmonton, AB) was top Canadian finishing in 40th place.
Junior athletes were in action this weekend as well. At the Junior Women’s Foil World Cup in Lyon, France, the top Canadian was Ariane Bilodeau (Outremont, QC) who finished 22nd overall. Bilodeau lost in the round of 32 to eventual bronze medalist Ayesha Fihosy from Great Britain to take 22nd place. Jane Caulfield (Edmonton, AB) finished in 57th spot.
