By Gelu SulugiucPosted 2008/08/07 at 2:13 pm EDT
BEIJING, Aug. 7, 2008 (Reuters) — Three American women will aim to sweep the saber medals in the individual event when Olympic fencing kicks off on Saturday.
Athens gold winner Mariel Zagunis and bronze medalist Sada Jacobson along with 2006 world champion Rebecca Ward are also favored to win the team event on August 14.
"I'm the defending Olympic champion and that adds a lot more pressure on me," Zagunis told Reuters. "My mentality is to just have fun and do my best and hopefully have a repeat performance."
The Americans will face tough opponents in Athens silver medalist Xue Tan of China and Russia's Elena Netchaeva, the 2007 world champion.
"We've all had strong seasons, so we're feeling confident," Jacobson said.
In the men's event, Aldo Montano of Italy will defend his Athens title on Tuesday against team mate and world number two Luigi Tarantino and Sydney champion Mihai Covaliu of Romania.
In men's foil, world number one Andrea Baldini was kicked off the Italian team last week after testing positive for a banned substance. Athens bronze medalist Andrea Cassara replaced him and will vie for gold on Wednesday with 2004 Olympic champion Brice Guyart of France and triple world champion Peter Joppich of Germany.
Italy's women's foil team is stacked with the top three fencers in the world. Top-ranked Valentina Vezzali will attempt to win an unprecedented third consecutive gold in the event on Monday.
Jujie Luan, who won China's sole fencing gold in 1984 in foil, is the oldest fencer at the Games, now representing Canada at age 50.
The 2004 individual epee champions, Timea Nagy of Hungary and Marcel Fischer of Switzerland, did not qualify for Beijing.
Frenchwoman Laura Flessel-Colovic will hope to repeat her 1996 individual epee gold on Wednesday, but will have to outduel top-ranked Britta Heidemann of Germany.
In the men's event, China's Wang Lei will try to improve on his Athens silver, squaring off on Sunday against top-ranked Silvio Fernandez of Venezuela and 2007 world champion Krisztian Kulcsar of Hungary.
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