Canada’s men’s foil and women’s sabre athletes were the final disciplines to compete in the preliminary rounds at the 2019 Senior World Fencing Championships in Budapest.  With important Olympic qualifying points on the line, Canada has advanced another four athletes to the main draw to bring the total number of Canadian fencers to advance to 13.

Men’s foil started the day off strong with three athletes advancing to Saturday’s final rounds.  Eli Schenkel, a Canadian living in the US, had a perfect record in poules, winning all six bouts and advanced directly to the top 64’s.  Blake Broszus, also living in the US, had five wins and one loss in poules.  He had a bye in the first elimination round and then defeated Peter Files from Croatia by a score of 15-9 to advance to Saturday.  Maximilien Van Haaster (Montreal, QC) had three wins and two losses in poules but then went on to handily defeat his competitors in the elimination rounds.  He defeated Santiago Luccetti of Argentina 15-5 and Tse Yuan Chen of Taipei 15-4 to advance to the final 64’s.  Misha Sweet of Winnipeg did not advance.

In women’s sabre, Gabriella Page (Blainville, QC), fresh off her individual bronze medal at the 2019 Senior Pan American Championships, battled to make it through to the final rounds on Saturday.  She had three wins and three losses in poules and then won her first elimination bout 15-13 against her competitor from Thailand.  She faced Marta Puder from Poland in her second elimination bout and won 15-11.  Madison Thurgood had a 4-2 record in poules and a bye in the first round. She then faced Milagros Pastran from Venezuela and lost a heartbreaker, 15-13.  Marissa Ponich (Edmonton, AB) lost her first elimination bout and did not advance.  Pamela Brind’Amour (St. Martine, QC) unfortunately had to withdraw due to injury.

Competition continues tomorrow with the final Individual rounds for Women’s Epee and Men’s Sabre.  Epeeists Leonora Mackinnon and Malinka Hoppe Montanaro will be taking the stage, along with men’s sabre athletes Shaul Gordon, Joseph Polossifakis and Fares Arfa. For live results and live streaming, please visit: https://www.2019budapest.com/.

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