TOKYO, Japan, July 29, 2021—On the sixth day of competition at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, eight women’s foil teams have completed quarterfinals and placement rounds through the semifinals. This evening, France will face ROC for the gold medal, with USA fencing Italy for the bronze.
In the semifinal rounds, ROC beat USA, 45-42 and France defeated Italy, 45-43. For the fifth through eighth placement positions, Canada took fifth place over Japan, 45-31, and Hungary took seventh place over Egypt, 45-28.
“Today was about being mentally strong and never giving up”, said France’s Ysaora Thibus, after a comeback win in the semifinal against Italy, the defending Olympic champion. “We talked about winning being possible, making them doubt themselves, being aggressive, shouting and focusing on our fencing. It was teamwork and we started to see them doubting, and then we knew winning was possible. Now, going into the final with ROC, we know them, we don’t expect it to be easy, and we’re going to have a strategy before it and use the same positive mental imaging.”
“Sure, we’re disappointed, we wanted to go for a medal”, said Canada’s Kelleigh Ryan after her team’s loss to France, 45-29. “It’s so hard starting the day fencing a super-strong team, we knew it would be tough, and it was. So we set our sights on a different goal and aimed for fifth place. Just because we didn’t get the first goal didn’t mean we wouldn’t get the second one, which we did. And, on another positive note, I’ve found since COVID there’s a different atmosphere in fencing, there’s more friendliness in the air. Everyone is super excited to be here fencing.”
“For us, the Tokyo Olympic Games are an experience for the future”, said Japan’s Yuka Ueno. “We need to gain the power as the Japanese team so we can win on the big stage. The USA and ROC are very strong and we need to learn to win World Cups and other big events in order to advance in future events.”
Complete information about fencing results and athletes at the Olympic Games may be found on the official Olympic website and on the FIE website, www.FIE.org.
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