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photo courtesy of
Portraitiste Fernando
Montreal,
June 1, 2008 (Sportcom) – Canada
won its first ever major
international medal in the men’s
team epee event on Sunday with a
third place finish at a World
Cup competition at the Claude-Robillard
Centre. The s defeated France
44-43 in the bronze medal match.
France is ranked third in the
world.
Canada opened
with a 38-33 win over Ukraine in
the round of 16 then took China
28-22 in the quarter finals. A
45-22 lost to Italy in the
semifinal put Canada in the
fight for bronze. The Canadian
team members were Tigran
Bajgoric, Hugues Boisvert-Simard,
Igor Gantsevich and Igor
Tikhomirov.
‘’It really
was a team victory,’’ said
Boisvert-Simard of Quebec City.
‘’We kept focused all day even
near the end when we were
starting to feel tired. Our
chemistry and confidence were
the keys to victories over big
teams like China and France.
Everyone gave their all.’’
Against
France, Canadians built a
10-point gap before seeing it
fritter away at the end of
regulation time. In overtime,
Bajgoric made a successful
counter-attack for the victory.
In the final,
Hungary defeated Italy 45-40.
The last big
result for the men’s team epee
event dates back to the 1984 Los
Angeles Olympics. In L.A.,
Jacques Cardyn, Jean-Marc
Chouinard, Alain Côté, Michel
Dessureault and Daniel Perreault
finished fourth. The women’s
epee team took third spot at the
2005 World Cup in Havana, again
by beating France in the bronze
medal match.
Cardyn was a
proud spectator at Sunday’s
competition. ‘’Except for
Tikhomirov, these fencers were
developed in Canada and they are
still young. It’s encouraging to
see our talent pool grow each
year and provide us some depth.
The future looks bright.’’
‘’When a
fencer had a bad match the team
didn’t get discouraged, everyone
stayed with the game plan,’’
said Danek Nowosielski, the high
performance director for the
Canadian Fencing Federation.
‘’That’s what allowed them to
produce such a strong
performance.’’
‘’Tigran was
able to maintain leads in his
matches and made the last point
in most of his matches,’’ he
continued. ‘’With Gantsevich and
Boisvert-Simard, there’s a solid
base for the next Olympic
cycle.’’
Nowosielski
said Sunday’s showing will
provide plenty of confidence to
Canadian epeeists. ‘’They are
learning to beat top teams and
with the confidence gained this
can be a turning point.’’
In women’s
team competition, Canadians
Brita Goldie, Gabrielle Lavoie,
Daria Jorquera-Palmer and
Ainsley Switzer lost their
matches 45-33 to Poland, 41-29
to Hong Kong and 45-42 to Sweden
for 14th place.
Poland won
the gold with Russia second and
China third.
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