Canadian Fencing Federation – It was another great weekend for some of Canada’s Rio bound fencers. 

Leonora Mackinnon, who will be representing Canada in Women’s Epee in Rio, finished top of the podium in an FIE Satellite event in Split, Croatia.

Mackinnon, who is a Canadian living in England, had 3 wins and 2 losses in poules, with one loss by a score of 5-4.  It was then a long road to the podium with five direct elimination bouts, and she won them all, including two by scores of 15-14.

Mackinnon faced hometown favourite Toncica Topic from Croatia in the semi-finals, and won by a close score of 9-8.  This moved her on to the final, where she defeated Dagmar Ciparova from Slovakia 15-11 to take gold. 

This is the second weekend in a row that Canada’s Rio bound athletes have finished top of the podium in Satellite competitions.  Joseph Polossifakis (Laval, QC) won gold in men’s sabre last weekend in London.

Polossifakis meanwhile competed in a World Cup in Madrid this weekend.  He finished a strong 5 wins and 1 loss in poules and then went on to win his two direct elimination bouts to put him in the 64’s.  In the round of 64, he defeated Richard Huebers from Germany 15-13 but then unfortunately lost his next bout in the 32’s to Nicolas Rousset of France 15-9.  Polossifakis finished the event 28^th overall out of close to 200 fencers.

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