Tan Xue during the competition

China's medal hopeful Tan Xue failed to enter top four Saturday, losing to Russia's Velikaya Sofiya 9-15 at the preliminaries in women's sabre individual event at the Beijing Olympic Games.

"We've had pretty much training in this Fencing Hall and I'm quite familiar with the venue. I lost the match because I didn't perform well enough and didn't understand the Russian rival enough," Tan said after the match.

"She (Sofiya) fought very aggressively from the beginning. I lagged behind from the beginning and it's very hard to catch up," she said.

"Maybe we should have studied this rival better," Tan said with regret.

Another Chinese Bao Yingying lost to Zagnis Mariel of the United States aslo at 9-15.

The other two fencers who made it to the top four were Jacobson Sada and Ward Becca, both of whom Americans.

(Xinhua News Agency August 9, 2008)