Fencer Shaul Gordon (from Richmond, BC but now living in Montreal) had his best World Cup result of his career so far this past weekend in Gyor, Hungary, finishing 15^th at the Sabre World Cup.

Gordon had a strong start, winning four of his five pool bouts, and then defeated Nicholas Pastore from Australia 15-8 and Arne De Ridder from Belgium 15-6 in the elimination rounds. This put Gordon into the top 64. There he defeated Arthur Zatco from France 15-10 and Miklos Pech from Hungary 15-12 to advance to the top 16. Gordon lost to South Korean, Hwang Byung-Yul, 15-10 to take 15^th place overall.

“It’s a very good result and his first top 16 World Cup result of his career,” said Men’s Sabre National Coach, Benjamin Manano. “He fenced well all day. His hard work in training is paying off, but he needs to continue to work harder and harder to reach further. It’s a good first step in his development as a high performance athlete.”

Canada’s Men’s Sabre team of Shaul Gordon, Farès Arfa (Laval, QC), Philip Pitura (Regina, SK) and Ethan Wang (Vancouver, BC) finished in 15^th place. The team defeated Colombia 45-33 to advance to the top 16, where they lost to top ranked Russia, 45-19. The team lost several very close bouts in the placing bouts against Japan and Hong Kong, before defeating Belgium 45-33 to take 15^th place.

Said Coach Manano, “the objective of finishing top 16 was attained, but now we need to be able to go after top 12. It was a satisfying weekend for men’s sabre overall and our next focus is the World Cup in Italy in February.”

Another Canadian had a breakthrough performance this past weekend. Twelve year-old Jessica Guo (Toronto, ON) continues to impress with her silver medal performance at the Cadet (U17) European Fencing Circuit event in Germany. Guo finished 2^nd out of 222 fencers, defeating USA’s Lee Morgan in the semifinal 15-10. Guo lost to 16 year-old May Tieu from the US, 15-10 in the final to take silver.

Several Canadian Men’s and Women’s Foil athletes were also in action this past weekend at the Foil Grand Prix in Turin, Italy. Maximilien Van Haaster (Montreal, QC) made the main draw directly after finishing with 5 wins and 1 loss in pools. Van Haaster lost to Adam Mathieu of the USA in the top 64’s by a score of 15-10 to finish in 44^th place overall. Canadian Eleanor Harvey (Hamilton, ON), directly in the main draw due to her top 16 world ranking, lost 15-10 to Carolina Erba from Italy to finish in 34 place.

Canadians Ji Victor Chang (Richmond Hill. ON) and Christopher Dlouhy (Vernon, BC) were Canada’s top performers in Luxembourg, both finishing top 64 at the Men’s Epee Junior World Cup.

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