The Cadet and Junior World Championships have come to an end and the Canadian Team is now on its way home. Canada sent over a contingent of 38 athletes (18 Cadets and 20 Juniors).

A development event for young fencers, the Canadian Cadets finished the event with one top 16 performance in addition to 3 top 32 finishes. Dylan French (Vancouver, BC) had the top result for Cadets, finishing 13th out of 116 competitors in Men’s Epee. Emma von Dadelszen finished 29th out of 106 competitors in Women’s Epee, while Tanya Nelson finished 31st in Women’s Foil and Jihad Kabbaj finished 32nd in Men’s Sabre.

The Junior World Championships is an important high performance development event for the Canadian team, providing the program with a strong indication of its future potential in Senior. Canada performed well in 2013, with one top 8 performance, 2 top 16 results, and 3 top 32 finishes in Individual competition. Canada performed particularly well in team events, with 2 top 8 and 1 top 16 finishes out of the 6 teams competing.

Shaul Gordon led the juniors with a 6th place finish out of 105 competitors in Junior Men’s Sabre. The Junior Women’s Foil team had impressive results, with Eleanor Harvey finishing 14th, Alanna Goldie 17th and Jerrica Gu 20th in Individual competition. The group finished with a best ever Canadian result of 4th in the team event, making it to the medal round. Our Junior Women’s sabre athletes also performed well, with Imola Bakos finishing 16th and Gabriella Page 31st in Individual competition. The women’s sabre team comprised of Bakos, Page and Frédérique Bourget finished 8th in the Team event. Another top 16 result in team was achieved by Men’s Sabre (Shaul Gordon, Fares Arfa, and Pascal Lambert) who finished 14th overall.

The future looks bright as most of the top Canadian competitors have several years left to compete at the Cadet and Junior levels. The CFF congratulates all competitors on a successful season and looks forward to another great season in 2014.

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