February 13, 2015 – The Peter Bakyoni Men’s Epee World Cup got underway today with 176 athletes participating from over 29 countries.  The event features Men’s Individual and Team Epee, and is an important event in the lead up to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

In the first day of Individual competition, Canada had two athletes advance to the round of 64 which starts Saturday.  

Hugues Boisvert-Simard (Quebec, QC) had a strong first day of competition, finishing the highest in pool play from among the 31 Canadians participating.  Boivert-Simard breezed through his first Direct Elimination bout, defeating Florian Staub from Switzerland 15-8.  He then faced Bortosz Piasecki from Norway and won 15-13.

“I feel relieved to be advancing,” said Boisvert-Simard. “I had a good training week at Dynamo Club here in Vancouver.  I trained with athletes from China, Korea and Hong Kong competing this weekend who fence with a lot of speed and it was really beneficial for my preparation and helped with my results today.”

2015 Pan Am Junior champion Marc-Antoine Blais-Belanger had a very close first bout with American Yeisser Ramirez, coming out on top in overtime 9-8.  Blais-Belanger then faced Ka Ming Leung from Hong Kong.  After another close bout, the junior aged Blais-Belanger came away the victory 15-13.

Blais-Belanger had this to say about his results today: “The day started off slow with my pool bouts a struggle but I managed to gain momentum as the day went along.  I was down 7-0 at the start of the last bout but managed to change the momentum and slowly came back to take the match.  I am very pleased to be advancing to Saturday.”

Competition resumes Saturday at 10:00 am.  Follow the event through live streaming at http://www.sportscanada.tv/fencingcanada and visit the CFF Face Book page for photos of the event.

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