Senior Men's and Women's Epee athletes were in Grand Prix Olympic qualifying action this past weekend in Doha, Qatar.

Max Brinck-Croteau (Markham, ON), currently top Canadian in the race for Rio in Men's Epee, finished top 64 in a field of close to 200 fencers, earning a valuable 3 points towards qualification.  Brinck-Croteau won 2 and lost 3 in his poules round, but won both of his Direct Elimination bouts against Finnish athletes to advance to the round of 64, where he eventually lost to Daniel Gerant from France to finish in 63^rd place.

Top Canadian in Women's Epee was Leo MacKinnon (Canadian living in Great Britain). MacKinnon was 3-3 in poules with an overtime loss and a 5-4 loss to defending Olympic champion Yana Shemyakina after just missing a double with a 4-3 lead. She won her first DE against Van Brummen from the US by a score of 15-7. She was close with Gudkova from Russia at 2-4 after the first, but fell behind and couldn’t catch her losing 15-7 and finishing 86th. MacKinnon picks up another 1.5 points with her top 96 which keeps her as the top Canadian in Women's epee in the race for Rio.

Canada continues to show its depth in women' foil with the results of its Cadet athletes who competed in a European Fencing Circuit event in Cabries, France this past weekend.  Jane Caulfield (Edmonton, AB) was top Canadian and finished 8^th in an event that included 171 fencers.  Caulfield's run for the podium was stopped in the quarter-finals by Russian Anna Udovichenko who went on to win silver in the event.  Also in the top 16 was Karina Li (Toronto, ON) who finished 12^th overall.

Canada also had several teams compete in the Team event on Sunday.  Canada 1 which consisted of Ying Cao (Toronto, ON), Karina Li (Toronto, ON), Jane Caulfield (Edmonton, AB) and Cynthia Liu (Canadian living in Brookline, MA), won bronze in the 28 team event!  Canada 1 was ranked first overall after poules and went on to defeat teams from France and Japan before losing to eventual gold medalist Russia 3 in the semi-finals.  Canada 2 (Elizabeth Dostie-Vigneault, Artemis Happs, Jessica Jia and Rachel Tam) finished a strong 12^th overall.

Top Canadian Cadet Men's Foil athlete at the Cabries event was Blake Broszus (Canadian in San Jose, CA) who was 31^st overall in a field of 219 fencers.  In the Men's Team event, Canada 1 (Blake Broszus, Alex Kai, Mateusz Kozak, and Daniel Li) finished 12^th overall in a field of 42 teams.

Marie-Pier Villeneuve-Leroux (Deux Montagnes, QC) was top Canadian at the Women's Sabre Junior World Cup in Dormagen, Germany in 64^th place and Canada was 10^th overall in Team competition.  No Canadian men's sabre athletes finished top 64.

Canada's young up-and-coming athletes continue to show their potential on the world stage and Canada currently has six Individuals in strong Olympic qualification contention along with several teams still vying for a spot.

Many of Canada's Senior and Veteran division fencers are competing in the USFA's North American Cup (NAC) in Baltimore, Maryland with several medal and top 8 results so far.  Competition ends today with highlights from the event posted tomorrow.

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