The competition has concluded at the 2018 Cadet & Junior Pan Am Fencing Championships in San Jose, Costa Rica. Canada won 5 medals in the Cadet (U18) Championships early last week and added another 6 medals through the Junior (U21) Individual and team competitions for a total of 11 medals overall.

Canada got off to a strong start in Women’s Epee with Shirley Guo (North York ON, VGO) and Ariane Leonard (Saint-Lambert QC, OM) repeating as medalists. Guo took gold in the Cadet Women’s Epee event last week and finished off with another gold medal in Junior Women’ Epee. She defeated hometown favourite Karina Dyner Villa from Costa Rica to take home gold for Canada. Ariane Leonard won her second bronze medal of the tournament, after losing to Villa a close 15-13 in the semi-finals.

Blake Broszus (Canadian in the US, OM) took home a bronze medal in Men’s Junior Foil. Broszus defeated fellow Canadian Patrick Liu (Canadian in the US, OTT) to get to the semi-final where he lost 15-8 to the eventual gold medalist Kenji Bravo from the USA.

Canada added another three medals to its total in junior team competition. The men’s sabre team of Angelo Chiara, Montreal QC (BRE); Hunter Moricz, North Vancouver BC (NVF); Spencer McPhedran, Edmonton AB (EFC) and Pierre-Frederic Kaluza, Montreal QC (BRE) finished with a silver medal, defeating Mexico in the semi-final and then losing to the USA for gold.

Canada’s Junior Women’s Foil team also took home silver. The team of Naomi Moindrot-Zilliox, Saint Lambert QC (OM); Jane Caulfield, Edmonton AB (EFC); Cynthia Liu, Canadian in the US (OTT) and Annie Lin, Toronto ON (TFC) won their semi-final against Chile to advance to the final where they lost to the USA to take 2^nd.

Canada’s women’s sabre team of Madison Thurgood, Edmonton AB (SSC); Marina Guitchitskaia, Edmonton AB (SSC); Rachel Lamarre, Blainville QC (SPA)and Veronique Lamarre, Blainville QC (SPA) won bronze after losing to Mexico, the eventual gold medalists, in the semi-final, but defeated Chile in the bronze medal match to take 3^rd place. Canada’s men’s foil team finished just out of the medals in 4^th place while the women’ epee team finished in 6^th place.

Canada had eight individual athletes finish top 8 in junior competition as follows:

Shirley Guo – North York, ON (VGO) – 1^st

Ariane Leonard – Saint-Lambert, QC (OM) – 3^rd

Blake Broszus – Canadian in the US (OM) – 3^rd

Angelo Chiara – Montreal, QC (BRE) – 7^th

Cynthia Liu – Canadian in the US (OTT) – 7^th

Naomi Moindrot-Zilliox – Saint Lambert, QC (OM) – 8^th

Veronique Lamarre – Blainville, QC (SPA) – 8^th

Patrick Liu – Canadian in the US (OTT) – 8^th

Congratulations to all!

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