Canada’s top junior and cadet epee fencers were in action in the last three days of competition at the 2019 Junior & Cadet World Fencing Championships in Torun, Poland.  Canada’s Seraphim Hsieh Jarov(DYN, Surrey, BC) was Canada’s top epee fencer, finishing in 6^thplace overall in Men’s Junior Epee, an event with almost 200 fencers.

Jarov started the event strong, winning five of his six poule bouts. He then narrowly won his first elimination bout by a score of 15-14 to advance to the 64’s.  There he faced Andrej Gedzo from Estonia and won 15-14 in another nail biter.   Jarov won in the 32’s by a resounding 15-1 score against his competitor from Korea.  Jarov had a major challenge in the top 16, facing the number one seed Jakub Jurka from Czech Republic and won 15-13 to advance to the quarter-finals. In the top 8, Jarov faced Gianpaolo Buzzacchino from Italy and had a hard fought battle, losing in overtime by the score of 14-13 to finish in an impressive 6^thplace overall.

Canada’s Zi Shan Guo(VGO, Toronto, ON) finished 27^thin the Junior Women’s Epee competition and Ariane Leonard(OM, Saint-Lambert, QC) was 64^th.  Guo also competed in the Cadet Women’s Epee competition and was 22^ndoverall, while Grace Hu(VGO, Richmond, Hill, ON) was 24^th.  Canada had three top 64 finishes in the Men’s Epee Cadet event, with David Gornovsky(SWP, Toronto, ON) finishing 36^th, Ted Vinnitchouk(TFC, Thornhill, ON) 55^thand Nicolas Deguchi(SWP, Milton, ON) 57^th.

Canada’s Women’s Epee team of Zi Shan Guo, Grace Hu,Ariane Leonardand Christina Zozulya(DYN, West Vancouver, BC) finished in 12^thplace.  Canada won against Egypt 45-40 in the 32’s and lost to the USA 45-35 in the 16’s. Canada then competed in the placing bouts for 9-16 and won their first bout against Romania 45-41.  The team them lost to Israel and Korea to finish in 12^thplace overall out of 31 countries.  Canada’s Men’s Epee team defeated Kuwait 45-25 in the 64’s but lost in the 32’s to fourth seed Italy 45-38.

Canada finishes the 2019 Junior & Cadet World Championships with an impressive record of 3 top 8 and 5 top 16 results overall, including: 2 top 8’s in women’s foil, 1 top 16 in men’s foil, 2 top 16’s in men’s sabre, 1 top 16 in women’s sabre, 1 top 8 in men’s epee and 1 top 16 in women’s epee.

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