London's Sophie Troiano competes in fencing for Team GB
Tom Moore
Saturday, July 28, 2012
10:53 AM
Olympic fencing: Natalia Sheppard 12 Sophie Troiano 9
London born Sophie Troiano’s Olympic dream in the individual foil is over as she was beaten by Team GB team-mate Natalia Sheppard in the round of 64 stage.
The pair would have trained together and it was the 27-year-old Sheppard, who qualified for the Games automatically, who picked up the first point with a feint as Troiano, who was a selected host nation athlete, was slow moving backwards.
And the 25-year-old Londoner was unable to keep Sheppard’s attack at bay but picked up her first point with a good counter but fell two points behind after the first three-minute period.
Sheppard scored again early in the second period and carved out a four point lead with another feint to hit the sword-arm shoulder and it was soon five with a good counter.
Troiano picked up another two points to reduce the deficit to three with a stop-hit and the comeback was on with another stop-hit.
The gap was reduced to one going into the final stoppage as Sheppard looked to manage the gap.
The more experienced woman picked extended her lead but Troiano pulled it back, despite Sheppard protesting about the mask.
The 27-year-old added another hit to move two clear but Sheppard appealed but lost yet made up for it by keeping the gap at two.
With a minute remaining in the bout Troiano reduced the gap to one again but Sheppard continued the manage the gap at two points, but with 17 seconds remaining on the clock it was reduced to one but Sheppard sealed the victory with a hit with six seconds remaining and again in the final two seconds.
Sheppard will face Corinne Maitrejean in the round of 32.
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