The preliminary individual rounds are all completed at the 2017 World Fencing Championships, hosted in Leipzig, Germany from July 19^th to 26^th. The top 64 male and female fencers in epee, foil and sabre will compete in the main draw competition starting on Friday.

Six Canadian women and one male fencer have advanced to the final rounds including four athletes in foil, two in epee and one in sabre.

Alanna Goldie (Calgary, AB) and Kelleigh Ryan (Ottawa, ON) both had 5 wins and 1 loss in poules, which advanced them directly to the main draw. They join Eleanor Harvey (Hamilton, ON), who is ranked 8^th in the World and advanced directly based on her world ranking. Canada just missed out on having all four foil women in the main draw. Junior Ariane Bilodeau lost her final elimination bout a heartbreaking 15-14 to Areta Lee from Hong Kong.

Two of Canada’s women’s epee athletes also had great performances. Malinka Hoppe Montanaro (Montreal, QC) went a perfect 6 wins and 0 losses in poules to advance directly to the Main Draw. Rio Olympian Leonora MacKinnon (Canadian living in the UK) had 5 wins and 1 loss in poules, advancing her to the second elimination round where she defeated Argentinian Melisa Lara Englert Urretia 15-5 to also qualify for the 64’s.

The final Canadian woman to advance is junior Madison Thurgood from Edmonton, Alberta in women’s sabre. Thurgood advanced from poules with two wins and four losses, but then went on to win her elimination bout against 13th seeded athlete Hin Wai Lam from Hong Kong, 15-10.

Canada’s fourth foil athlete and lone male to advance to the main draw is Marc-Antoine Brodeur (Boucherville, QC). Brodeur had 2 wins and 4 losses in poules but made it through both of his elimination bouts, defeating Joshua Lim from Singapore a close 15-14, followed by Matan Czuckermann from Israel 15-5 to advance. Rio Olympian Maximilien Van Haaster (Montreal, QC) narrowly missed advancing, losing a heartbreaking 15-14 to Li Chen of China in his final elimination bout.

The final rounds for women’s foil, women’s sabre and women’s epee take place Friday, Saturday and Sunday respectively, with men’s foil also on Sunday. Team competitions run Monday to Wednesday next week with Canada fielding teams in all categories. For full schedule and results, please visit: http://www.fechten2017.de/?L=1

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