Ottawa, October 23, 2013 – The world’s best fencers will participate in the 2013 World Combat Games in St. Petersburg, Russia and Canada has qualified athletes in five out of six events. Only the top 16 athletes from around the world are invited per weapon including the top athletes from each Olympic zone. 

Canada has qualified the following athletes: Alanna Goldie (Calgary, AB) for Women’s Foil; Joseph Polossifakis (Montreal, QC) for Men’s Sabre; Hugues Boisvert-Simard (Quebec City, QC) for Men’s Epee; Joanna Guy (Toronto, ON) for Women’s Epee; and Maximilien van Haaster (Montreal, QC) for Men’s Foil.

Competition will be tough with five out of the six top ranked fencers in the 2012/2013 season competing in the event, which takes place in the St. Petersburg Sports Complex: Arianna Errigo (ITA, women’s foil), Andrea Cassara (ITA, men’s foil), Ana Maria Branza (ROU, women’s epee), Rubén Limardo Gascón (VEN, men’s epee) and Veniamin Reshetnikov (RUS, men’s sabre).

They will be joined by reigning world champions Miles Chamley-Watson (USA, men’s foil), Nikolai Novosjolov (EST, men’s epee) and Julia Beljajeva (EST, women’s epee).

Canadian Fencing Federation President Brad Goldie said, “The CFF is pleased to have an additional high level competition for our athletes and we are very proud to have qualified five Canadian athletes for this prestigious event. It is a sign that our high performance program is moving in the right direction.”

The fencing competition will take place from October 24 – 26, with Men’s Sabre and Women’s Foil on October 24^th, Men’s Epee and Women’s Sabre on the 25^th and Men’s foil and Women’s epee completing the fencing competition on the 26^th.  The format is straight direct elimination bouts based on world rankings.

It is only the second time that the World Combat Games is being held and the first time that fencing has been included.  A total of 15 combat sports are included in the event. Fans and media can watch the matches live on: http://www.youtube.com/user/combatgamechannel/feed  and follow the live results on www.worldcombatgames.com.

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For further information, please contact:

Caroline Sharp, ed@fencing.ca, 613-323-5605