Rio Olympian Maxime Brinck-Croteau (Gatineau, QC) had his best-ever World Cup result this past weekend in the first Men’s Epee World Cup event of the season in Berne, Switzerland. In a field of 240 fencers, Brinck-Croteau finished 16^th overall and defeated the tournament favourite in the elimination rounds.

With a 3 wins and 3 loss record after poules, Brinck-Croteau’s result advanced him to the elimination round. There he defeated American Alexander Tsinis 12-11 and then Romanian Andrei Timoce 8-7 which advanced him to the round of 64. Both wins were in overtime.

On Saturday, he fenced hometown favourite Max Heinzer and came away with the win 15-13. He then faced American Adam Rodney in the 32’s and won 15-9.

“In the top 64 bout against Heinzer, winner of seven or eight World Cups including this hometown event several times, it was a great match. I managed the bout well and continually adapted to his physical style. Against Rodney in the 32’s, I did well overall and his style of fencing is well suited to me,” said Brinck-Croteau.

His day came to an end in the 16’s with his 13-9 loss to Czech Martin Rubes. “He was very dynamic and he changed tactics quickly after I took a 3-0 lead at the start,” stated Brinck-Croteau. “He then took the lead and hung on to it, so I lost by a lack of time at the end.” Brinck-Croteau finished the event ranked 16^th overall, his best-ever result in World Cup.

Canada’s men’s epee team of Brinck-Croteau, Hugues Boisvert-Simard (Quebec, QC), Marc Antoine Blais-Belanger (Outremont, QC) and Milosz Rowicki (Montreal, QC) took to the floor on Sunday in the Men’s Epee Team World Cup in Berne.

Canada got off to a great start with a 32-31 win against Team USA to advance to the 16’s. There the team faced the number two ranked Italian team and lost 21-12 to put them in the classification round. The team’s first bout in the 11-16 round was against Venezuela, with Canada coming out on top 45-41. They then advanced to the next round and faced the Ukraine. Canada lost a very close 27-26.

In their final bout of the day for the 11^th and 12^th positions, Canada faced a very strong Team Kazakhstan and lost 45-33 to finish in 12^th place overall, a great result for a team with some young up-and-coming fencers.

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