Saturday.
With the victory, MacKay has now overtaken Duplitzer as the #1
ranked women’s epee fencer in the world.
"I’m thrilled!" MacKay said. "Sometimes you just
have to pinch yourself to realize that for this moment, there’s
no one in the whole entire fencing community ranked above you!"
This not only marks the first time a Canadian
has been ranked #1 in the fencing world but was also the first
time a Pan American zone fencer has managed to win the European
dominated Saint Maur Grand Prix.
MacKay started the day with a 15-14 win over Li
Zhang of China followed by victories over Poland’s Malgorzata
Stroka 15-10, Romanian Loredana Iordachioiu 7-6 in OT and Olga
Aleksejeva in the quarterfinals 15-10. Moving on to the semi
finals, MacKay bested Laura Flessel-Colovic of France for the
second time this season winning 15-9.
Flessel-Colovic and Li Na of China won the
bronze medals.
In other Canadian action, Julie Leprohon from
Montreal placed 61st following a 15-13 first round
loss to Flessel-Colovic.
Catherine Dunnette from Calgary placed 77th,
Toronto’s Leigh Voigt finished 107th, Joanna Guy and
Ainsley Switzer both from Toronto finished 121st and
132nd.
There were 146 competitors in the event.
Teams from 20 countries have assembled in Saint
Maur for the World Cup team event taking place Sunday.
Sixth ranked Canada will fence Austria in their first match for
a berth in the quarterfinals.
Full results:
