Harlan defeats Russian and moves on: who awaits her in the quarter-finals of the Olympic tournament
29 July 2024 16:22
ОІ-2024
Ukrainian sabre fencer Olha Harlan has successfully qualified for the quarter-finals in the individual competition at the Olympic Games, reports "Komersant Ukrainian".
In the 1/8 finals, she confidently defeated Anna Bashta from Azerbaijan with a score of 15:6. Bashta is a Russian-born athlete who used to play for this country, but changed her sporting citizenship in 2019.
Harlan is an experienced Olympic medallist. She won gold in Beijing 2008 in the team competition, bronze in London 2012 and Rio 2016 in the individual tournaments, and silver in Rio 2016 in the team competition.
Unfortunately, other Ukrainian fencers, Olena Kravatska and Alina Komashchuk, dropped out of the individual competition at the 1/16 finals.
In the quarter-finals, the Ukrainian will compete against Hungary’s Anna Marton. The match is scheduled for 16:55 Kyiv time today, 29 July. It will be available to watch on Suspilne Sport TV channel.
Anna Marton
Anna Marton is a Hungarian sabre fencer born on 31 March 1995 in Budapest. She started fencing at the age of nine and has been training under the guidance of Gábor Gardos since the age of ten.
Marton has achieved significant success in junior competitions, becoming the European and World Junior Champion in 2014. She represented Hungary at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro and 2020 Tokyo Olympics. At the adult level, Marton won a bronze medal at the 2015 World Championships in Moscow in the individual event and a silver medal at the 2016 European Championships in Torun. In 2019, she won bronze medals in individual and team events at the European Championships in Düsseldorf. Anna Marton has been recognised as the best fencer in Hungary four times (in 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2021).
The athlete is tall – 180 cm – which gives her an advantage in fights. In addition to her sporting career, Marton is studying at the Faculty of Biology at Loránd Etvesz University in Budapest.
