Rio Olympian Leonora Mackinnon (Canadian living in the UK) has started off the 2017-18 fencing season on a strong note, winning gold in the first women’s epee event on the FIE calendar, the Belgrade Satellite event held this past weekend.

Mackinnon had four wins and two losses in poules, which gave her a bye to the tableau of 32. She defeated Hungarian Vivien Varnai 15-7, and then soundly defeated Croatian Paula Jukic 15-3 in the 16’s. Mackinnon fenced Austrian, Stephanie Fehrer in the quarter-finals and won a close 15-13.

She was then off to the semi-finals where she fenced Romanian Claudia Naboiu, winning 15-12, advancing her to the finals. Mackinnon faced Dorina Budai from Hungary for gold and came away with the victory, defeating Budai 15-11 to take the top spot.

Men’s Foil athlete Alex Lim (Calgary, AB) was also in action this past weekend. Lim competed in the Men’s Foil satellite event in Amsterdam and finished 7^th out of over 75 fencers. Lim had five wins and 1 loss in poules, and breezed through his 64 and 32 round bouts winning both 15-5. Lim then defeated Daniel Giacon from the Netherlands a very close 15-14 to advance to the quarter-finals.   Lim lost to eventual gold medalist Martino Minuto 15-8 to finish in 7^th place overall.

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