It was a great weekend for Canada’s Junior Women’s and Men’s Foil programs who were in Havana, Cuba on the weekend for a Junior World Cup.

Canada’s top junior women’s foil athletes came away with two medals and a total of six top 16 finishes!

Naomi Moindrot-Zilliox (OM, Saint-Lambert, QC) took home silver for Canada. Undefeated in pools, Moindrot-Zilliox went directly to the 16’s where she defeated Sara Ann Martos of the USA 15-10. She then won a very close bout to Chile’s Katina Poestakis 14-13 in the quarter-finals to advance to the semis. There she faced her teammate Ying Cao, winning 15-4 to advance to the final. Moindrot-Zilliox’s only defeat of the tournament came in the final against Amita Berthier from SGP 15-8, to take home silver for Canada.

Ying Cao (TFC, Toronto, ON) was Canada’s other medalist, taking home bronze. Cao went 5-1 in poules, and then defeated Austria’s Iris Margetich 15-4 in the 32’s. She defeated Italy’s Camilla Toffolon 15-9 in the 16’s, and her teammate Sarah Filby 15-10 in the quarter-finals before losing her semi-final to Moindrot-Zilliox to take home bronze for Canada. Sarah Filby (MGB, Edina, Minn. USA) finished in 8^th place. Cynthia Liu (EFC, Brookline, MA) also had a great event, finishing just off the podium in 5^th. Jane Caulfield (EFC, Edmonton, AB) finished in 12^th after losing to the eventual gold medalist while Christie Hoi Ching Lee (UTO, Toronto, ON) came 16^th overall.

Canada’s top men’s junior foil athletes had two athletes finish in the top 16. Blake Broszus (San Jose, CA) was Canada’s top performer, finishing in 7^th place. Broszus had 4 wins and 1 loss in poules then went on to defeat Austria’s Simon Hrubesch 15-8 and USA’s Marcello Olivares 15-9 to advance to the quarter-finals. Broszus lost his quarter-final bout to USA’s Kenji Bravo 15-12 to finish in 7^th place overall. Christopher Sheardown (EFC, Medicine Hat, AB) was Canada’s other top men’s foil athlete, finishing in 15^th place overall.

Meanwhile, Canada’s top junior women’s epee athletes travelled to Burgos, Spain to take part in the Junior Women’s Epee World Cup. Canada’s team of Justine Boudreau (OM, Sherbrooke, QC), Cindy Gao (TFC, Toronto, ON), Alexanne Verret (EST, Quebec, QC) and Shirley Wang (VGO, Toronto, ON) finished 11^th in the team competition. After losing to Switzerland 45-37 in the 16’s, the team defeated Turkey 45-37 and lost to Russia 44-39 to advance to the 11-12 final. Canada defeated Germany an exciting 30-29 to take 11^th place overall. Canada’s top Individual performers were Justine Boudreau at 24^th and Cindy Gao at 37^th in a competition that had a total of 188 fencers.

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