P.E.I.'s Hannah Taylor will wrestle for a bronze in Paris

Hannah Taylor did not give up a single point against Ecuador's Luisa Elizabeth Valverde Melendres. (CBC - image credit)
Hannah Taylor did not give up a single point against Ecuador's Luisa Elizabeth Valverde Melendres. (CBC - image credit)

Summerside native Hannah Taylor will battle for bronze at the Summer Olympics in Paris Friday afternoon, after dominating in her 57-kg women's wrestling repechage match against Ecuador's Luisa Elizabeth Valverde Melendres.

Taylor scored her first two points about 40 seconds into the bout, dropping Valverde to the mat, and never looked back. She was leading 7-0 at the end of the first three-minute period.

She scored another two points 45 seconds into the second period, and Valverde took a timeout while a trainer worked on her right leg.

Taylor needed just one more point to end the match. She did that another 45 seconds later, throwing Valverde down and out of the ring for four points and a 13-0 victory.

Taylor's bronze medal match is scheduled for 1:15 p.m., against Helen Louise Maroulis of the United States.

Maroulis was a gold medal winner in the 53-kg class in the 2016 Rio Olympics, and took bronze in Tokyo in the 57-kg class in 2020. She lost her second bid for gold Thursday, losing her semi-final match against Japan's Sakurai Tsugumi 10-4.

Taylor was also knocked out of contention for gold by Sakurai, losing 6-1 in her Thursday morning fight. But Sakurai's win over Maroulis, which advanced her to the gold medal match, gave Taylor an opportunity to compete in the repechage.

In wrestling, two bronze medals are awarded, with two repechage winners competing against the losers of semi-final matches.