Fencing Canada – Canada hosted another very successful Bakonyi Vancouver Men’s Epee World Cup this past weekend, with close to 200 competitors from around the world, vying for valuable 2016 Rio Olympic qualification points.  The Vancouver World Cup was the last Team event on the calendar, with several countries down to their last chance to earn a Men’s Epee Team spot for Rio.

Team Hungary captured the gold in an exciting final against Team Kazakhstan by a score of 42-36, earning a spot among the eight teams heading to Rio and denying their opponents the same opportunity.  Canada was not in the running but hoped to be a spoiler in the competition. Unfortunately this was not to be as Canada lost 44-33 in the round of 32 to Israel.

On the Individual side, Canada’s top performers were Laurie Shong (Vancouver, BC) and Vincent Pelletier (Quebec, QC) who both lost their final direct elimination bouts by close scores.  Max Brinck-Croteau (Markham, ON) remains as Canada’s top prospect for Rio in men’s Epee, and currently maintains the second Pan Am zone qualification spot with only two events remaining on the FIE calendar.

Over 61,000 people from 125 countries tuned in to watch the Vancouver Men’s Epee World Cup!  All matches are available to watch in Ustream at: www.viasport.ca/fencingworldcup. To access photos from the event, please visit the event facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/VancouverGP/.  Thanks to all of the volunteers who made the event possible and such a success under the leadership of the event Co-Chairs, Dave Callaghan and Igor Gantsevich.

The Canadian Women’s Epee Team was also in Olympic Qualification action this past weekend in Argentina.  Canada’s top performer in Individual was Leonora MacKinnon (Canadian living in England) who lost her last Direct Elimination bout to finish 82^nd overall.  MacKinnon continues to comfortably hold a Pan Am zone spot in the qualification race for Rio with only two events remaining on the calendar.

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