Estonia's women fencers mostly make it through to world championships main draw
Estonian fencers Irina Embrich and Veronika Zuikova are through to the women's individual épée main draw at the ongoing world championships in Hong Kong.
Teammate Julia Beljajeva just lost out, however.
Embrich, Zuikova and Beljajeva are joined at the tournament by top fencer Katrina Lehis. As world number one, Lehis does not have to go through qualifying, while the other team members do.
In that qualification, Embrich won all six of her matches in her group, securing direct qualification for the main draw, which begins with the round of 64.
Zuikova had the most difficult route in the group stage. In her first match, she defeated Egypt's Aya Hussein 15:13, and in her second match secured a 10:9 victory over former European champion Aizanat Murtazajeva (Russia). Overall, she posted three wins and three losses, but still went through.
Beljajeva is out, despite having a four-win streak after losing her initial bout against Venezuela's Lizzie Asis. After beating Filipino fencer Hanniel Abella 15:4, she lost narrowly, 15:14, to Romania's Natalia Constantini, and so is out. She will be able to compete in the women's team event next Tuesday, July 28.
Lehis, Embrich and Zuikova, meanwhile, will fence in the individual main draw this coming Saturday.
The Estonian men's team, comprising Sten Priinits, Kasper Tafenau, Oliver Laasik and Markus Salm, all have to go through qualifying for the individual event.
Lehis, Embrich and Beljajeva were part of Estonia's gold medal-winning team at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (held in 2021).
--
Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!
Editor: Andrew Whyte, Henrik Laever
