Mariel Zagunis won the saber gold medal as in 2004 to lead an historic fencing medal sweep for the US in Beijing yesterday.
They were the US’ first medals in Beijing, the country’s first sweep in fencing and only the second in women’s fencing, following the West German success led by Anja Fichtel at the 1988 Games’ foil event.
Zagunis, 23, beat Sada Jacobsen 15-8 in the gold medal tussle with Rebecca Ward assuring the sweep by coming back from 11-8 down to beat Russia’s Sofiya Velikaya of Russia 15-14 in the bronze medal bout.
“It is absolutely amazing. We made history today. I am proud of myself as well as Sada and Becca,” an elated Zagunis said. “It is really a dream come true but I am glad its over.”
While the US trio was among the favorites — Ward won the 2006 world title and Jacobsen took Olympic bronze in 2004 — there were some upsets in the competition.
World champion Elenena Nechaeva went out in her first bout. There was also big disappointment for the Chinese crowd when, plagued by a foot injury, the world championship and 2004 Olympic runner-up Tan Xue crashed 15-9 to Velikaya in the quarter-finals.
“The floor is a bit too hard and I didn’t feel comfortable. It is definitely a distraction,” said Tan, who also admitted that she “failed to adjust my strategy according to my opponent’s moves.”
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
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