May 10 – Kelleigh Ryan is coming home from Copenhagen with a gold medal around her neck.

Ryan won gold in women’s foil this weekend at the Satellite World Cup event in Copenhagen, Denmark.

“Yesterday was a great day!”, said Ryan, “(I was) coming out of a few tournaments where I felt stressed, it felt really good to come to this competition and fence a lot of good, competitive bouts. I focused mostly on taking over slowly and touching in one tempo and had a positive mindset throughout the day.”

Ryan tore through the pool round, going undefeated before a couple of challenges in the direct elimination rounds.

“The first few direct elimination bouts had a couple rocky points, but by the quarter finals I had found my groove and I really surprised myself with some of the things I was able to do in the semi and final.”

Ryan got into an early hole against Irem Karamete of Turkey, but she and coach Alex Martin were able to devise a new strategy on-the-fly and found a way to make a comeback, which included a six-touch streak that led to a lead that she never let go of en route to a victory and a berth in the finals.

Flavia Johana Mormandi was all that stood between Ryan and gold, but she took the mindset she used in the semi-final and carried it over to the final, which helped her to a convincing 15-6 victory over the Argentine.

“I really enjoyed the tournament and I feel like I learned a lot,” said Ryan, “I'm looking forward to fencing at the next competition – the Grand Prix in Shanghai – and trying to carry over some of what I learned this weekend there.”

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