Canadian Fencing Federation – The Team events got underway today at the 2016 Pan Am Fencing Championships with Women’s Epee and Men’s Foil in action.

Canada’s Women’s Epee Team of Leonora Mackinnon (Canadian living in England), Malinka Hoppe Montanaro (Montreal, QC), Vanessa Lacas-Warrick (Markham, ON) and Brittany Mark-Larkin (Ile Bizard, QC) took home Canada’s first gold medal at these Championships.

The team’s path to the gold final started with a bye in the 16’s before their win against Colombia by a score of 45-42 in the quarter-finals, followed by a 45-26 win against Puerto Rico in the semis.

Canada then faced Rio-qualified Team USA in the battle for gold.  Canada came out very strong, working their way to an eleven point lead well into the bout. The experienced USA battled back hard but Canada held on and took the win by a score of 45-44!

Canada’s other young team, consisting of Rio-bound Maximilien Van Haaster (Montreal, QC), Marc- Antoine Brodeur (Boucherville, QC) and junior-aged Misha Sweet (Winnipeg, MB) competed in Men’s Foil and also advanced to the medal round today.

Canada defeated a veteran Venezuela team in their quarter-final match 45-29, and then faced Brazil’s Rio-bound team in the semi-finals and lost 45-33. This advanced them to the bronze medal final where they faced Team Mexico. 

It was a back and forth battle with both teams carrying the lead at different times, but in the end Canada surged and came out with the win by a score of 45-38.

Canada’s two team medals today add to Canada’s three medals in Individual competition for a total of five medals with two more days of competition to go.

Taking the stage tomorrow in team competition are Men’s Epee and Women’s Sabre.

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