Montreal, May 4 – Pierre Mainville won bronze in Men’s Sabre Sunday at the Wheelchair Fencing Montreal Grand Prix, part of the 31^st Défi sportif AlterGo.

Mainville, from Saint-Colomban, Quebec, came very close to causing the surprise upset of the event in the semi-final against Paralympic champion Grzegorz Pluta from Poland.  After mounting an effective comeback against the tournament favourite to bring the score to 14-14, Mainville was unable to earn the last touch and lost 15-14.

“Having tied the score at 14-14, I was a little taken aback.  I was nervous. It’s still the Paralympic champion.  I had a chance for the last touch, but he managed to partially block it and I was not able to complete it. It was bad luck but also a lack of authority on my part,” said Mainville who defeated the Malaysian Adam Mushammad Sallen 15-7 in the quarter-finals. Mainville finished 7^th on Saturday in Men’s Epee.

In category A, Quebecers Patrick Hébert and Pierre Vallée were both eliminated in the fourth round. Hébert was defeated 15-7 by Robert Citerne from France while Vallée was defeated 15-1 by the Malaysian Mohd Kassim Bin Zamrin.

Later in the day, in the team competition, the Canadians faced France in the quarterfinals and lost to finish 5^th overall. They had earlier defeated teams from Argentina and the United States to advance to the quarterfinals.

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