Canadian Fencing Federation – Several Canadian athletes are in Rio for test events which include Men’s and Women’s Epee Grand Prix events as well as the Team World Championships for Men’s Sabre and Women’s Foil, the two team events that will not be included in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

 

Jean Lelion (Montreal, QC) was Canada’s top athlete in Grand Prix competition with his 28^th place finish in Men’s Epee. Lelion started strong with 4 wins and 1 loss in pool play to finish first in his pool.  Lelion then went on to win 15-10 in his direct elimination bout against Argentina’s Jesus Lugones Ruggeri. This advanced him to the 64’s on Sunday where he faced Russia’s Sergey Bida.  Lelion won the bout a commanding 15-8 to advance to the 32’s.  His day came to end here with a 15-11 loss to Switzerland’s Georg Kuhn to finish 28^th overall.

Rio 2016 bound Leonora Mackinnon (Canadian living in England) took part in the Women’s Epee Grand Prix and fell just short of the top 64’s with a 65^th place ranking after losing her DE bout to Anastasia Ivchenko from the Ukraine, 15-9.

Canada’s Women’s Foil and Men’s Sabre Teams are in Rio competing in the Team World Championships today.  The Men’s Sabre team consisting of Joseph Polossifakis (Laval, QC), Pascal Lambert (L’Epiphanie, QC), and Remi Bedard-Couture (Montreal, QC), ranked 16^th in the tournament, faced 17^th ranked Japan in the round of 32 and fell a very close 45-43 to unfortunately be eliminated from the tournament.

The 8^th world ranked Canadian Women’s Foil Team of Alanna Goldie (Calgary, AB), Eleanor Harvey (Hamilton, ON), Kelleigh Ryan (Ottawa, ON) and Shannon Comerford (Saskatoon, SK), advanced directly to the 16’s where they faced 9^th ranked China. Canada sadly lost 45-40 which put them in the 9-12 ranking matches.  They rebounded however and went on to defeat Brazil 45-29 and then Poland 45-36 to take 9^th place overall.

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Canadian Fencing Federation