Olha Kharlan, the best saber fencer

The first round of the women saber fencing of Grand Prix of the World Cup 2010 recently took place in Orleans, France. The well-known 19-year-old Ukrainian Olha Kharlan won gold, reports the National Olympic Committee press service. Serhii Bubka, President of the National Olympic Committee, congratulated Olha, her personal coach, and the staff of the National Fencing Federation of Ukraine with the victory. This Ukrainian athlete was recognized as the best athlete of the year twice, in 2008 and 2009, by the NOC. She defeated (15:13) her most serious rival – Marial Zagunis from the US, who ranks first in the world rating of women’s saber fencers.

Bubka wished Olha further achievements, “I believe that the brilliant victory over the leader of the world rating at the very beginning of the season will celebrate the beginning of the successful sports year in which you scale new heights.” Among Ukrainian women at the World Cup in the single competitions the experts point to a fairly good performance of Olha Zhovnir, one of the favorites of Beijing-2008, who came tenth. Less successful were two Olympic champions, Olena Khomrova and Halyna Pundyk — the former became the 21st, while the latter completely failed the beginning of the season and took the 72nd place out of 120 athletes.