Translated material
Fifth element
It was the country's women's saber team
On Thursday, medals were awarded in the women's team saber tournament at the Olympic fencing tournament in Beijing. The Russians were unable to break their losing streak, finishing only in fifth place. Moreover, they lost already in the first stage of the playoffs (in the quarterfinals), unable to cope with the Ukrainians. The only small consolation is that Ukraine eventually became the champion, having accomplished a real feat in the final battle with China - our offenders fought back with a score of 27:35. At the end of the match, the numbers on the scoreboard were 45:44, not in favor of the home team.What can we say, we had high hopes for a successful performance in the team competition. They were waiting for the saber fencers to break the enchanted streak of failures. True, Ukraine was a very inconvenient opponent for the Russians. This year our girls have not met them before, and last year they lost both matches, including at the European Championships in Ghent (Belgium). But optimism was caused by the fact that all three Russians who came out to fight the Ukrainians were rated higher than them.
But, as often happens in team tournaments, ranking and skill gave way to cohesion and the thirst for victory. Ukraine immediately seized the initiative when Olga Kharlan beat Ekaterina Dyachenko 5:2 in the first fight. And in the future, the Ukrainians acted more confidently, not allowing the Russians to get closer. Although before the last round of battles Russia was not losing much - 25:30. But both Elena Nechaeva and Ekaterina Dyachenko lost their micro-matches with the same score of 4:5. In the last match, Sofia the Great had to fight back seven hits. She failed to do this - 1:5 and 34:45 in the end. Subsequently, having won against the frankly weak team of South Africa (45:13) and Poland (45:36), the Russian saber fencers became the “fifth element” in the standings.
“I didn’t like the mood of the fight,” said state fencing coach Sergei Kolganov. - It seems that the girls are poorly prepared for the tournament. And yet, despite the setbacks, there is no need to panic. There are two more types of programs ahead, and I am confident that our athletes will do everything possible to perform well these days. I hope that the fans will also support our fencers.”
Today, the fencing program of the Games includes team epee competitions. In this discipline, our team failed to win an Olympic license. And then the Russians will have two more chances to sweeten the bitter Beijing pill - in the team tournaments of foil and saber fencers.