Three more Canadian fencers advance to the Individual 64’s on day three of the World Fencing Championships in Wuxi, China.  In action on the final day of Preliminary Individual competition were Men’s Foil and Women’s Sabre.

Maximilien Van Haaster (Montreal, QC) started off strong in the Men’s Foil competition, winning four out of five of his poule bouts, enabling him to advance directly to the final 64’s of Men’s Individual Foil competition on Tuesday in China.  Van Haaster will fence 16^th seed Takahiro Shikine of Japan.

Junior-aged fencer Blake Broszus (Canadian living in the US) had two wins and four losses in poules and lost a very close 15-14 against Antonio Gojak from Croatia in the elimination round.  Eli Schenkel (Canadian living in the US) also lost his elimination bout, by a score of 15-9 to finish in 103^rd place.

Two of Canada’s Women’s Sabre athletes advanced to the final day of Individual competition on Tuesday.  Both Gabriella Page (Blainville, QC) and Marissa Ponich (Edmonton Alberta) had two wins and four losses in poules and both won their elimination bouts. Page won 15-8 against Teodora Kakhiani from Georgia while Ponich defeated Olena Voronina from the Ukraine a close 15-14.  Page will fence third seed Bianca Pascu from Romania while Ponich will face the number one seed Olga Kharlan from the Ukraine on Tuesday.  Pamela Brind’Amour (St. Martine, QC) did not advance after poules and finished in 90^th place.

Canada advanced a total of ten fencers who will compete in the final top 64 rounds of Individual competition.  Competing later today (Sunday in China) in their final round are Fares Arfa and Shaul Gordon in Men’s Sabre.

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