Calgary’s Eleanor Harvey won a bronze medal Sunday to become the first Canadian to win an individual fencing medal.
Harvey withstood a fierce comeback by Italy’s Alice Volpi, who rebounded from a 10-4 deficit to knot the score at 10 apiece before Harvey reeled off five points to win 15-12.
The Calgary resident, a past CTV Athlete of the Week, had a big comeback win herself, coming from behind to beat Italian Martina Favaretto 15-14 in the quarterfinals earlier Sunday after also trailing 10-4.
However, a couple hours later in the semi-finals her luck ran out against American Lauren Scruggs, who beat her 15-9 to advance to the gold medal match.
Scruggs controlled the match early, jumping out to a 4-0 lead before Harvey cut the deficit to 5-3 before the end of the first round.
The 29-year-old, originally from Hamilton, was a silver medallist in both the individual and team foil events in last year’s Pan Am Games in Santiago, Chile.
Eleanor Harvey is a fencer on the rise and she’s our Athlete of the Week. Glenn Campbell reports
Team Canada Fan Fest, on Stephen Avenue between 1 Street S.E. and 1 Street S.W., was the site of a happy watch party Sunday afternoon, who watched Harvey make a bit of Canadian fencing history.
With files from the Canadian Press