Following a 5-1 finish in pool competition, which earned her a number four seed, Jemal opened direction elimination with a first round match-up against Anjelica Larios of Mexico. Larios recorded the first touch, but Jemal quickly took control of the bout and moved out to a 14-6 advantage. She earned her 15th touch early in the second to advance to the quarterfinals and a contest with Maria Belen Maurice Perez of Argentina. Jemal controlled her second bout from start to finish, grabbing an 8-3 lead after the first round. Six unanswered points pushed Jemal to a commanding 14-4 lead, and she recorded her 15th touch at the 2:28 mark to win the bout and advance to a semifinal round date with Baratta.

Jemal scored the first touch in the match, and never trailed in the contest with Baratta. She slowly built her lead, taking an 8-3 lead after the first round. Jemal continued to pile up the touches in the second round, winning the bout by a 15-7 margin at the 2:16 mark of the round.

“Everybody fought very hard and everybody trained a lot. Fencing is a very complicated sport in that usually you’ll find that your toughest opponent is yourself. Every opponent has strengths and weaknesses,” Jemal said. “The champion (Gonzalez) has a very strong and fast hand, but I also have strengths. I couldn’t change for the power in her arm and that was my challenge.”

She faced off with Cuba’s Mailyn Gonzalez in the championship match, and found herself in an early hole with the Cuban moving out to a 6-1 lead. Yet Jemal fought back, pulling the bout to an 8-6 margin after the first round. She stayed close through the second round, and trailed by only a 14-12 score, but Gonzalez scored the winning touch at 2:34 of the second round to win the bout.

Baratta enjoyed a strong start to her day, going undefeated in pool action to take the number one seed. She took on Melanie Meracado Mendez of Puerto Rico in her opening direct elimination bout. The match-up was close through the early going, but Baratta began to take over late in the first round, enjoying a 14-6 lead at the end of one. She scored her 15th touch at the 2:39 mark to win the bout and move on to a quarterfinal bout with Estefania Berninsone of Argentina. Baratta held a slim advantage throughout the first round, and took an 8-5 lead into the second round. She continued to dictate the contest in the second round, doubling up on her Argentine opponent. Baratta took an 15-8 lead at the 2:10 mark of the round to win the bout and advance to the semifinal round match-up with Jemal.

“Facing a teammate is difficult, the bout is always different because you know them very well. You know their strengths and you know their weaknesses, and they know your strengths so it’s hard to make a strategy that’s new because they know you just as you know them,” Baratta said. “It’s different than other kinds of bouts, and it’s also harder for me sometimes to fight as hard when it’s a teammate rather than someone I don’t know. I know tonight I wasn’t moving in the beginning, I wasn’t fighting like I was. I tried to change that later because, teammate or not, on the strip you have to fight as hard as you can and its sometimes hard to remember that.”

2004 Olympians Seth Kelsey (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and Cody Mattern (Colorado Springs, Colo.) will join Benji Ungar (New York, N.Y.) in men’s team epee action on Friday at the Riocentro Sports Complex.

Final Standings/Women’s Individual Saber
1. Mailyn Gonzalez, Cuba
2. Alexis Jemal, USA
3. Sandra Sassine, Canada
4. Emma Baratta, USA