By REYNALD MAGALLON
Maxine Esteban advanced to the main draw of the Mazars Challenge International de Paris at the Pierre de Coubertin stadium in hopes of boosting her bid for a spot in the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympics.
The Filipino-Ivorian fencer placed 14th over 430 fencers in the senior ladies foil after sweeping her assignments to advance in the prestigious World Cup event which offers Olympic points and serves as dress rehearsal to the Paris Games
Esteban came out unscathed at the end of the poules, winning all of her six matches to barge into the Round of 64 where she is set to face fellow qualifier Katarina Lung of the US.
The former UAAP champion opened her bid in style, defeating Laeticia Jorgensen of Denmark before following it up with another victory over Yunjia Zhang of Canada. Esteban showed no letup and continued to roll with big wins over Gaia Cantucci of Slovakia and hometown bet Esther Bonny of France.
She then closed out her assignments with a pair of victories over Germany’s Larissa Evers and Japan’s Shiori Takezawa.
Should Esteban win over Lung, she is marching to the Round of 32 where she is likely to face No. 3 seed Martina Favaretto of Italy who is taking on 62nd seed Hannah Lyczbinska of Poland.
