Women´s Epee World Cup kicks off in Havana

HAVANA, Cuba, Jan 19 (acn) Havana´s Sports City Coliseum will host from today to next Sunday one of the legs of the FIE Women´s Epee World Cup.

The individual contest will be attended by 145 fencers, while the team event, on Sunday, will gather 32 squads.
It will be a very tough tournament as 8 out of the 10 athletes included in the top 10 of the FIE World Ranking will be present in Havana.
The list includes Estonia´s Julia Beljajeva, ranking leader and silver medalist of last year´s World Championships held in the German City of Leipzig.
In addition to Beljajeva, it is also confirmed the presence in the Cuban capital of Chinese Yiwen Sun, 3rd in the ranking; Russians Tatiana Gudkova (4) and Violetta Kolobova (10); Polish Ewa Nelip (5), South Korean Injeong Choi (6); Ukranian Olena Kryvytska (7) and German Alexandra Ndolo (8).
The list of highly-qualified fencers attending this competition also includes Italians Mara Navarria (11), winner of this season´s WC leg held in Tallinn, Estonia, and Rossella Flamingo (13), Rio 2016 silver medalist.
The local team will attend the event with seven athletes, and its best fencer is veteran Yamilka Rodriguez, Guadalajara 2011 Pan-American Games silver medalist, who appears 169th in the global list.