Sada Jacobson won the Havana World Cup this past weekend by defeating teammate Mariel Zagunis in the final. By doing so, Jacobson gained enough points to take over the #1 world ranking in women’s sabre; Zagunis is ranked #5.
Entering the final weeks of competition prior to the Olympics, the world ranking will be important in determining the matchups in the single-elimination individual tournament.
Sada Jacobson first had to dispatch fellow US fencers Caroline Vloka in the round of 16 before taking out #9 Nakayama of Japan 15-8 and Korea’s Shin Lee 15-6. Mariel Zagunis cruised through her elimination matches as well with a 15-9 win over Cuba’s Martinez Rasua, 15-10 over Kubissa of Germany, 15-8 over Yu from Hong Kong.
In the quarterfinals Zagunis took out Italy’s Gioia Marzocca 15-10 to reach the gold medal bout.
The gold medal bout was the closest match for either US fencer with Jacobson pulling out a 15-13 victory.
Becca Ward enters this week ranked at #2 in the world. She did not compete in the Havana world cup.
The US team will compete next this weekend at the Las Vegas Grand Prix event. The Vegas event is one of the last two points events that will count towards Olympic seeding.
If current seeding holds, the US women are cleared through to the final 4 and would not have to face each other until the medal rounds.
Commentary from the Fencing.Net Forums:
After the FIE ripple from Havana, USA WS fencer Sada Jacobson has re-taken her #1 world ranking, with only two events to go before Beijing. It’s tight at the top:
1 330 JACOBSON Sada USA
2 328 WARD Rebecca USA
3 326 TAN Xue CHN
4 258 NETCHAEVA Elena RUS
5 250 ZAGUNIS Mariel USA
6 222 SOCHA Aleksandra POL
7 208 VELIKAIA Sophia RUS
8 180 PERRUS Leonore FRA
9 180 KIM Keum Hwa KOR
10 172 MARZOCCA Gioia ITA
11 160 LEE Shin Mi KOR
12 158 JOZWIAK Bogna POL
13 154 DIATCHENKO Ekaterina RUS
14 152 BAO Yingying CHN
15 146 FEDORKINA Ekaterina RUS
16 146 NAGY Orsolya HUNFor the end game: Sada, Becca and Mariel have two events left…Vegas and the Zonals in Mexico. Tan and Bao have already had their Zonal meet. Becca and Tan went 1-2 in Vegas last year, so they have a lot of points to protect, and not much room for improvement. Becca and Sada were 1-2 in the Americas Zonals last year, so again, not much room to move up, big potential to slide down. Sada was 6th last year in Vegas, so she has 36 potential points to improve if she runs the table in Sin City.
Socha is lurking in the pack at #6, but has been having a good year, and would see a 60 point improvement with a win in Vegas. # 4 Netchaeva fared poorly at Vegas last year, and also can protect her slot with a good finish. Mariel was 5th last year in Vegas, so there is more than enough room for her to vault over Netchaeva and back into the final four.
The European contingent also has its Zonal event still to go. Netchaeva, Socha and Marzocca all had top 8 finishes there last year, so they have points to protect as well.
