London 2012 fencing: US women knocked out, will China get its first gold?
London 2012 fencing: The US is out of women's individual epee fencing. The gold, silver, and bronze medals battled is between China, the Ukraine, South Korea, and Germany.
London 2012 fencing: China's Sun Yujie reacts after defeating Switzerland's Tiffany Geroudet during their women's epee individual round of 16 fencing competition July 30, at the London Games. Sun, who is ranked No. 1, is in the running for the women's eppe individual gold medal.
Max Rossi/Reuters
The US women struggled Monday in fencing.
Susie Scanlan, from St. Paul, Minn., was ranked at No. 30, and lost to Ukrainian Olena Kryvytska. Texas native, Courtney Hurley, who was ranked No. 20, lost to Laura Flessel-Colovic, a French fencing icon and two-time gold medalist.
Maya Lawrence, who is from Teaneck, NJ, beat Italian Mara Navarria, but lost to Italian Rossella Fiamingo.
The US women did not advance to the individual epee quarterfinals.
In the semifinals, China's Sun Yujie will take on Ukranian Yana Shemyakina, and South Korean Shin A Lam will fence against Germany's Britta Heidemann. The winners of these two matches will move on to the gold medal match today at 1 p.m. (EDT), and the losers will battle for the bronze. The match will be streamed live at nbcolympics.com,
Sun,19, is ranked No. 1 by the International Fencing Federation. A win for her would be China's first medal in women's individual epee since it was first included in the Olympics in 1996. China did earn a bronze in the team event in 2000.
All four countries competing in the finals are underdogs, Olympic fencing has typically been dominated by France, Italy, and Hungary. France has won 41 gold medals, and Italy 45. The US has only won three gold medals in fencing.