July 17 – Both the men’s and women’s epee teams pulled out big wins on Friday in the team competition event at the 2015 World Championships, with the men finishing the tournament ranked 10th while the women locked down the 16th overall spot.

The men’s side of Leland Guillemin, Hugues Boivest-Simard, Maxime Brinck-Croteau and Jean Lelion won a thrilling bout against the higher-seeded Americans by a final score of 39-38.

The bout started off as more of a back and forth, until Leland Guillemin was able to build up leads of 15-12 and 24-21 in back-to-back matches against Jimmy Moody and Jason Pryor. Boisvert-Simard held the lead against Benjamin Bratton, setting the stage for a fantastic final match between Brinck-Croteau and Moody, culminating in the final touch that gave the Canadians the big victory.

They were unable to keep their momentum going in table of 16, however, as they fell to the Hungarians by a score of 45-26.

On the women’s side, Leonora Mackinnon, Malinka Hoppe Montanaro, Joanna Guy and Alexis D. Anna Rudkovska beat Hong Kong to advance to the table of 16 against the number one seeded Italians.

Mackinnon started the bout strong for the Canadians, beating Man Wai Kong 5-4 in the first match. Hoppe Montanaro pounced on Kong in the second match, with five straight touches to extend the Canadian lead to 10-4. By match number five, the Canadian women had built up an 18-13 lead, but Hong Kong stormed back in the sixth match, narrowing the deficit down to one touch. The Canadians took over from that point, with Hoppe Montanaro, Guy and Mackinnon winning their final three matches to win the bout.

The women fought valiantly against the top-ranked Italians, but were ultimately beaten 45-24.

Tomorrow the foil teams are up in the final day of the world championships, before members of the Pan Am teams head to Toronto for next week’s Games.

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