Gold and Bronze for Men’s Epee at Junior-Cadet Pan American Fencing Championships

By admin February 7, 2015

Toronto – Canada added another three medals to its Junior Individual medal tally today at the 2015 Junior-Cadet Pan American Championships being held at the Pan Am Sports Centre in Scarborough, Ontario.

Canada’s Men’s Junior Epee team got off to a good start, with two athletes advancing to the semi-finals.  The draw was not in Canada’s favour however as Dylan French (Richmond, BC) and Marc-Antoine Blais-Belanger (Montreal, QC) met each other in the semi-finals ruining the chances for an all-Canadian final. Blais-Belanger won that contest, defeating French by one point, 12-11, to advance to the finals and earning a bronze medal for French.  Blais-Belanger then faced American Anton Piskovatskov and following another close bout, won 15-13 to bring home the gold medal.

Canada also had strong finishes in Junior Men’s Sabre.  Pascal Lambert (L’Epiphanie, QC) advanced to the semi-finals, and faced Calvin Liang from the USA.  Lambert’s tournament unfortunately came to an end with his loss of 15-10, however earning Canada another bronze medal in the process.  Another notable result in Men’s Sabre was Cameron McKay’s (Winnipeg, MB) fifth place finish just out of the medals.

Canada’s young Junior Women’s Foil athletes finished just off the podium but showed great promise for the years to come.  Ariane Bilodeau (Outremont, QC) finished in 5th place while teammate Sofya Romashina (Richmond, BC) came in 8th place.

Canadians have earned a total of 15 medals so far in Cadet and Junior Individual competition, including three gold, five silver, and seven bronze. Canada looks to increase its medal tally in the Junior Team competition which gets underway Saturday at 9:00 am and runs through to Sunday.

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