Canadian Leonora Mackinnon (living in Newbury, England) competed in her first event since Rio this past weekend in the FIE Satellite tournament in Geneva, Switzerland.

Mackinnon narrowly missed the gold finals, losing 15-14 to eventual gold medalist Alex Ndolo from Germany. Mackinnon was down 13-10 but mounted a comeback, just missing the finals.

“It was a great start for Leonora,” said Women’s Epee National Program Coach, David Howes. “Especially since she is focusing more on fitness in this early part of the season.”

Junior World Cup season is also underway and Canada’s Men’s and Women’s Junior Sabre athletes were in action in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

Top Canadian was Madison Thurgood (Edmonton, AB) who finished in 13^th place in an event that had 140 fencers! Thurgood won 5 and lost 1 in poules which advanced her directly to the 64’s. There she handily defeated Ottavia Polastri from Italy 15-5. In the 32’s she faced Ryan Jenkins from USA and defeated her 15-11. Her day came to an end in the 16’s with her loss to Petra Zahonyi, the event’s eventual bronze medalist from Hungary, 15-12, giving her a 13^th place finish overall.

Top Canadian in the men’s competition was Francois Cauchon (Montreal, QC) who finished 41^st out of 165 fencers.

Canada’s women’s and men’s junior teams finished 14th and 15^th respectively.

-30-