Olympic Move by Vloka

The good news for Caroline Vloka, who is attempting to make the US Olympic fencing team, is she moved up from seventh to fifth place in the Olympic team standings. The bad news, Vloka's main competition for the final Olympic spot is increasing her lead.

Vloka, a Northern Highlands senior, is on a world-wide trip in hopes of making the 2008 Olympic fencing team. To get the background read this link. http://www.northjersey.com/hssports/fencing/Sweet_Olympic_dream.html

Her trip got off to a rocky start in London where she finished 75th of 123. The rough opening  dropped Vloka from seventh to eighth, four places behind an Olympic birth. She rebounded the following weekend in France with a 30th place finish in a deeper field. In her most recent tournament, Vloka had her best result thus far finishing 26th. Vloka's performance in Hungary helped push her up to fifth in the US Fencing Women's Saber Team Points standings, used to select the Olympic team.

The positive results for Vloka also came with negative news. Dagmara Wozniak, Vloka's competition for the final Olympic roster spot, has fenced better than Vloka from the start. She finished 12th in London and just placed second in Hungary. Her 46th place in France wasn't enough to give Vloka an edge in position and her silver medal in Hungary ballooned her lead on Vloka to more than 3,000 points.

Vloka still has several chances to make up ground on Wozniak. Both will compete in Spain this weekend and with Vloka rounding into form look for her to seize the opportunity and win a medal of her own.

I will keep an eye on Vloka's progress, you keep an eye on this blog. I will give periodic updates including one next week when her results are in.