Fencer Olha Kharlan wins Ukraine's first medal at Paris Olympics
Ukrainian fencer Olha Kharlan has won her final match in the individual sabre fencing tournament at the 2024 Olympic Games.
Source: Champion, a sports news platform within Ukrainska Pravda’s holding company
With the score at 5-11 at one point, Kharlan nearly lost the match but managed to snatch a fantastic one-strike victory over Choi Soo-yeon of South Korea (15-14), securing Ukraine's first medal at the Paris Olympics.
Kharlan beat Japan’s Shihomi Fukushima in the round of 32, defeated Russian-born Anna Bashta in the round of 16, and easily trounced Hungary’s Anna Márton in the quarter-finals.
Olha's only defeat was to France’s Sara Balzer, who is ranked second by the International Fencing Federation and will compete for gold against her French teammate Manon Brunet in the final.
This is Kharlan's third individual bronze medal after London 2012 and Rio 2016. She also has two team Olympic medals: one gold from the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and one silver from the Rio Olympics in 2016. Kharlan is the second Ukrainian woman to have won five Olympic medals – the first was swimmer Yana Klochkova.
The 33-year-old Ukrainian will have another chance to win a medal in Paris, this time with a team. The women's sabre tournament will start on 3 August at 14:00 Kyiv time, with the Ukrainian team facing the Italians in the quarter-final.
As reported earlier, Olha Kharlan's teammates Olena Kravatska and Alina Komashchuk were knocked out in the round of 32. Kharlan's partner, Italian Luigi Samele, won a bronze medal in the men's individual tournament.
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