Sherraine MacKay climbs podium at World Cup in Italy

{mosimage}LEGNANO, ITALY – Tuning up for Athens, Canadian epee fencer Sherraine MacKay of Brooks, Alta., won the bronze medal at the Legnano World Cup in Italy today. She was defeated 15-12 by the eventual gold medalist Li Na from China.

On way to her semi-final match against Li Na, Mackay eliminated Hiroko Narita of Japan, Kathrin Holz from Germany and Tiffany Geroudet of Switzerland by the same margins of 15-12.  In the quarter-finals, she beat Italy’s own Bianca Del Carretto 15-13.

“I’m pretty pleased with the result” said MacKay.  “I feel a lot better physically with all the training we’ve been doing but I’m still missing a little bit of rhythm which was the difference between gold and bronze.”

Two weeks ago, Mackay dropped out of the top 10 in the world for the first time since the 2000 Sydney Olympics.  Apparently, the unfamiliar territory didn’t settle well with the 28-year-old as she has quickly jumped back up to 9^th overall.

China’s Li Na won the gold by defeating Emese Szasz of Hungary 15-11 in the final, while Imke Duplitzer of Germany and MacKay shared bronze.

Montreal’s Julie Leprohon finished 40^th being defeated 15-7 by Italian Virginia Di Franco.  Marie-Eve Pelletier from Quebec City placed 54^th suffering a similar fate losing her first round match 15-10 to Li Zhang of China.

Calgary’s Catherine Dunnette (65^th) and Monique Kavelaars of Appin, Ont., (66^th) both lost their direct elimination matches on Friday, failing to make the top 64.

MacKay and Dunnette have already qualified for the Olympic team by being number one and two respectively in Canada.  Pelletier, Kavelaars and Leprohon have one more world cup competition in Malaga, Spain next weekend to decide who will be the third member of the team.