Olga Harlan won the fourth medal of the World Cup sabre fencing season, taking second place at the Plovdiv stage, Suspilne Sport reported on Saturday.
Since the beginning of the season, the Ukrainian has already won three medals in the series. In particular, Harlan opened the year 2024 with a gold medal at the World Cup in Lima, Peru.
The Ukrainian started in the 1/32 finals with a 15:8 victory over the “neutral” Anna Smirnova. Last year, Harlan was disqualified from the singles competition of the World Championships because she refused to shake hands with Smirnova.
In the next round, Harlan defeated Italian Eloise Passaro (15:8) and qualified for the 1/8 finals.
Olga defeated another Italian, 30th in the world ranking Rossella Gregorio, with a 10-point advantage – 15:5. And Elizabeth Tartakovsky from the United States got into the top 4 after defeating the 17th world saber fencer, 15:8.
Harlan’s most difficult fight on the way to the final was with Misaki Emura of Japan. With the Ukrainian leading 14:10, her opponent came as close as possible to equalizing the score, but lost 13:15.
Harlan had to compete for gold with the world ranking leader, Sarah Balzer from France, who has already won three World Cups this season. The final fight ended in defeat for the Ukrainian – 8:15 and a silver medal for Harlan.
Harlan was the only Ukrainian team to qualify for the last 16.
