This past weekend was a great weekend of results for Junior and Cadet Fencers in World Cup and European Circuit competitions.

At the Junior Women’s Foil World Cup in Modling, Austria, Eleanor Harvey (Hamilton, ON) finished the day with a silver medal.  Harvey had an outstanding competition, finishing in first after preliminaries and earning a bye into the round of 64.  She continued to win her bouts through the round of 64, 32 and had a come from behind victory in the round of 16 defeating Flora Pasztor from Hungary 15-12.   Harvey then defeated Claudia Borella from Italy 10-2 in the quarter final and was victorious against Kristina Samsanova from Russia in the Semi-final, winning 15-10.  Harvey’s only loss was in the final against Oksana Progrobniak from Russia who defeated her 15-12.

Harvey’s performance was outstanding considering that this was a very strong World Cup competition with full teams from France, Russia, Italy, Germany and Hungary to name a few.  

“I had a series of goals coming into today that I feel I achieved,” stated Harvey.  “One of those goals was to bolster my confidence before the Junior World Championships in April.  This result would not have been possible without the continued support of Fingerfood Studios and my team of coaches.  A special mention to my mental performance consultant, Carl Nienhuis, for helping me achieve some of my goals today.”

Eleanor Harvey is currently ranked number one in the FIE World rankings for Junior Women’s Foil. Three other first year juniors finished in the top 64 at this competition.  Jenny Zhao (Ottawa, ON) finished 42^nd, Arianne Bilodeau (Montreal, QC) finished 46^th and Sofya Romashina (Richmond, BC) finished 49^th. 

National Junior Women’s Foil Program Coach Mike Pederson noted, “It was an excellent day highlighting both the excellence and future potential of the women's foil program.”   He too thanked Fingerfood Studios and the Canadian Fencing Federation for their continued support.

Canadian Cadet (U18) Men’s and Women’s Epee athletes were also in action this past weekend, at the European Circuit competition in Kraków Poland. With 155 competitors for women and 203 competitors for men, Canadians did exceptionally well.

Monica Lubczynski (Pointe-Claire, QC) won the silver medal in women’s epee, while Cindy Gao (Toronto, ON) finished in 6^th and Michelle Li (Maple, ON) in 8^th place out of the 155 competitors.  Other Canadians finishing top 16 included Justine DeGrasse (Colorado, USA) in 14^th and Alexanne Verret (Quebec, QC) in 16^th place. In Men’s Cadet Epee, Loic Beaulieu (Sherbrooke, QC) finished in 6^th place out of 203 competitors with a number of fellow Canadians finishing in the top 64.  For complete results from this event, please visit: http://www.eurofencing.info/tournaments/details/poland-krakow-2015

Canadian Cadet and Junior athletes will be in action at the 2015 Junior & Cadet Pan American Championships, scheduled to take place February 3-8 in Toronto at the  CIBC Pan Am / Parapan Am Aquatics Centre and Field House, the site for fencing for the 2015 Pan Am Games in July.  The event will be the official test event for fencing for the Games.

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For additional information, please contact Caroline Sharp, ed@fencing.ca, 613-323-5605