Romania Takes Women’s Team Epee Title

The Women’s Team Epee event went to form as the top 4 seeds all made the semi-finals and the top seeds advanced to have world #1 Romania face off against world #2 China for the 2011 World Championship.

The event had Olympic implications – solidifying some of the qualification slots, but at the same time opening up competition for the European zone.

In the gold medal match, China opened up an early 13-8 lead, but Simona Alexandru (ROU) used a 4-0 bout over Xiaujuan Lou (CHN) to bring the match within one point. Loredana Dinu (ROU) and Anca Maroiu (ROU) added 4-3 and 4-1 bouts to put Romania up 20-17.  The score held going into the final bout of the match.  Simona Alexandru (ROU) scored the first touch to push the lead to 4, but Na Li (CHN) fought back to tie the match 23-23 with 1:17 remaining.  At the end of regulation the score stood at 26-26.  Alexandru scored the winning touch 11 seconds into the overtime period, giving Romania the world title.

In the bronze medal match, the seeds held to form again as #3 Italy defeated #4 Germany 45-33.

The US team entered the tournament seeded 10th and opened up with a 45-27 victory over Venezuela.  In the round of 16, the US lost to 7th seed France 45-26.  In placement rounds the US defeated Japan 42-28 and then suffered losses to Hungary (45-32) and the Ukraine (45-39) to place 12th.

Olympic Qualification Implications

The top 3 seeds remain at the top 3 in our tracking of Olympic Qualification Points for Women’s Team Epee.  Romania, China, Italy, and Korea are the top 4 after Worlds.  The Regional bids (one per region) are set at the United States, Russia, and Japan.

The twist is that the top African nation, South Africa, sits at #21 in the World Rankings.  According to the qualification rules for London, a team must be in the top-16 to qualify for the Olympics.  That would knock South Africa out of contention and give the spot to France.

If South Africa remains out of the rankings, then Hungary, Poland and Germany may start to chase to close the gap on France and Russia, who are 10 points ahead of the second tier or European nations.  The US sits over 20 points ahead of Canada and should be secure.  Korea’s position at #4 in the Olympic qualification rankings give Japan a solid shot at qualifying with the Asian zonal slot.

Final Results: Women’s Team Epee World Championship