Canada’s top Cadet (U17) and Junior (U20) fencers were in action this past week at the 2018 Junior & Cadet World Fencing Championships in Verona, Italy.

Jane Caulfield from Edmonton, Alberta had Canada’s top result of the Championship, making it to the quarter-finals in Junior Women’s Foil which had a field of 142 fencers. Caulfield’s run to the podium ended with a 14-7 loss to the USA’s Lauren Scruggs, which gave her a 7^th place finish overall. Fellow Canadian Sarah Filby finished in 18^th place in the same event.

Caulfield, also competed in the Cadet Women’s Foil event and had another outstanding day, losing a heartbreaking 4-3 in the 16’s to Christelle Joy Ko from Hong Kong to finish 14^th overall. Tinney Mak (Toronto, ON), in her first World Championships, finished 16^th overall while Ying Cao was 25^th. All three Canadians finished in the top 32’s for Cadet Women’s Foil.

Canada’s Junior Women’s Foil Team had Canada’s top result in the team competition. Canada’s team of Jane Caulfield (EFC, Edmonton, AB), Naomi Moindrot-Zilliox (OM, Saint-Lambert, QC), Ying Cao (TFC, Toronto, ON) and Sarah Filby (MGB, Canadian living in the US) lost only one match in the tournament. Canada faced 5^th seed France in the 16’s and lost 40-32. The team then went on to win against Poland, Ukraine and Egypt to take the top spot of 9th in the 9-12 rankings.

Patrick Liu (OTT, Canadian living in the US) was Canada’s top performer in Men’s Foil, finishing 30^th out of 140 fencers in the Cadet Men’s Foil competition.

Earlier in the week, Arianne Leonard (OM, Saint-Lambert, QC) led the way for Canada in Women’s Epee. Leonard finished in 19^th place out of 175 fencers in the Junior Women’s Epee competition and followed up with a 20^th place finish in Cadet Women’s Epee the next day.

Canada’s Junior Women’s Epee team of Arianne Leonard, Shirley Guo (VGO, Toronto, ON), Christina Zozulya (DYN, West Vancouver, BC), and Cindy Gao (TFC, Toronto, ON) advanced to the top 16’s where they faced top ranked Italy. While Canada led for parts of the bout, they lost in the final seconds by a score of 39-38. Canada finished in 13^th place out of 34 countries while Italy went on to take gold in the event. Canada’s Junior Women’s Epee Team included three Cadet (U17) athletes.

Canada also had a top 16 finish in sabre. Rachel Lamarre (SPA, Laval, QC) finished in 16^th place in Junior Women’s Sabre after losing in the top 16’s to Liza Pusztai from Hungary who went on to win bronze. Angelo Chiara (BRE, Montreal, QC) was Canada’s top performer in Men’s Sabre, finishing 25^th overall in Junior Men’s Sabre.

Canada’s Junior Men’s Sabre team of Hunter Moricz (NVF, North Vancouver, BC), Francois Cauchon (BRE, Montreal, QC), Spencer McPhedran (EFC, Edmonton, AB) and Angelo Chiara (BRE, Montreal, QC) finished 11^th out of 38 countries. Canada defeated Iraq 45-30 in the 32’s but lost to the eventual gold medalists Italy, 45-32 in the 16’s. Canada finished off their placing bouts by defeating Ukraine 45-40 to take 11^th place for the event.

Canada finished the Cadet & Junior World Fencing Championships with one top 8, and 6 top 16 results.

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