Ukrainian women fencers win gold at World Championship

Ukraine’s national fencing team, composed of Olha Kharlan, Olena Khomrova, Halyna Pundyk, and Olha Zhovnir, won the World Championship in Antalya, Turkey. As the press service at the National Olympic Committee informed, our team, which won the Olympic gold medals in Beijing, first contended with the British team, defeating it with the confident score of 45:23. In the round of 16, they beat Italians 45:32 and then defeated their rivals from China 45:34 and won the ticket to the final. There they were met with the French team, which previously won two world champions. The Ukrainians beat them 45:38, becoming the new world champions. Serhii Bubka, President of Ukraine’s National Olympic Committee, congratulated the Ukrainian saber team on this brilliant success and wished them to always have a motivation for new victories, even now that they have obtained a complete set of awards.

The readers will recall that Kharlan (in the photo) earlier won silver in a World Championship before, yielding only to the twice Olympic champion Mariel Zagunis in the final fight with the score 6:15. The Ukrainian epee fencer Anfisa Pochkapova won bronze in this tournament.