July 30, 2012
LONDON – Notre Dame senior fencer Courtney Hurley reached the round of 32 in the Women’s Individual Epee Monday during day three of competition at the 2012 Olympic Games.
Hurley, the current number one ranked American epeeist, opened an early 5-3 lead against France’s Laura Flessel-Colovic in her first bout of the games. Flessel-Colovic answered with four of the next six touches to tie the bout at 7-7 at the end of the first period.
Hurley erased a two-touch deficit in period number two to square the contest at 11-all. Flessel-Colovic claimed two of the next three touches to take a 13-12 lead, then earned the final two touches of the bout to defeat Hurley 15-12 in the third period (17:43).
Yana Shemyakina of Ukraine won her first career Olympic gold medal, downing Germany’s Britta Heidemann 9-8 in overtime (18:45). China’s Yujie Sun earned the final four touches of the bronze medal match to defeat A Lam Shin of Korea 15-11.
Hurley is scheduled to take part in the Women’s Team Epee Aug. 4 to close out her 2012 Olympic slate. Former Notre Dame fencer Mariel Zagunis (Women’s Individual Sabre, Aug. 1) and incoming freshman Lee Kiefer (Women’s Team Foil, Aug. 2) will also compete this week.
For more information on all nine of Notre Dame’s participants at the 2012 London Olympics, visit the special Notre Dame Olympics microsite (und.com/olympics), the official London Olympics web site (london2012.com) or the official NBC Olympics web site (nbcolympics.com).
Fans can follow Notre Dame competitors at the 2012 Olympics through regular blog updates at und.com/olympics, as well as through social media on the Fighting Irish athletics Facebook page (facebook.com/fightingirish) or via Twitter on the main Notre Dame athletics Twitter feed (@fightingirish), or the men’s/women’s fencing team feed (@NDfencingteam) — use the hashtag #NDOlympics2012 to be part of the Notre Dame Olympics discussion.
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