It was a great start to the season in Senior Men’s Sabre with all four of Canada’s young athletes finishing top eight, including two medals at the Men’s FIE Satellite tournament in Amsterdam.

Cédric Boutet (Rosemere, QC) and Falan Kennedy (Ardrossan, AB) both won bronze medals, while Jihad Kabbaj (Montreal, QC) and Marc Gelinas (Blainville, QC) finished fifth and eighth respectively.

The athletes started off strong in poules, with all Canadians advancing directly to the round of 32, and all winning their bouts to advance to the 16’s.

All four won their round of 16 bouts which lead to Canadians facing each other in the quarter-finals. Kennedy defeated Gelinas 15-11 while Boutet defeated Kabbaj 15-12, to advance two Canadians to the medal round.

Both athletes suffered their first losses in the semi-finals with Kennedy losing 15-11 to eventual gold medalist Enver Yildirim from Turkey, while Boutet fell to Francesco D’Armiento from Italy 15-7 to give both Canadians bronze medals.

“It is a very positive sign to have four fencers in the top 8 in the first event of the season,” stated Senior Head Program Coach Benjamin Manano. “It enabled them to win their first FIE points for the season and created a healthy competition among our Sabre fencers.”

The Canadians will be in action again in Gand, Belgium in November for their second Satellite event for the season.

Canadian Alex Lim finished 7^th out of 107 competitors in Men’s Foil at the FIE Satellite competition in Amsterdam. He was Canada’s only entry in that competition which was not a National Team Project event.

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