CANADA AND UNITED STATES WIN FIRST GOLD IN FENCING

The epee competition was marked, with Lima 2019 gold medalist and Olympic champion (London 2012) Rubén Limardo of Venezuela unable to advance to the round of 16, having failed to achieve his goal of repeating gold in men’s individual epee.

Canada’s Dylan French won the first gold medal in the fencing competition at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games. The North American was crowned epee champion by 15-12, beating Chile’s Pablo Núñez Catalán in the final, in a competition marked by the defeat of Rubén Limardo in the quarter-finals. The three-time Pan American champion in the specialty (Rio 2007, Toronto 2015 and Lima 2019) was unable to consolidate his fourth gold achievement today. The Olympic champion fell in the round of 16.

The Brazilian Alexandre Pereira and the Venezuelan Francisco Limardo, brother of Rubén, won the bronze medal after losing in the semifinals to Núñez and the Frenchman, respectively. Another anecdotal fact is that Limardo’s third brother, Jesús, was also a medalist at the Pan American Games, with an individual silver medal in Lima 2019.

“I’m very happy because it was a very exciting experience and it’s an honor to represent Canada. The competition was very tough, all the athletes are very good and it’s always a challenge,” French said.

“Really, for me it is a short but very difficult competition, the 19 shooters are all elite, they are strong and we have no respite. We knew that to go far we had to beat the big guys, I had a very strong team, in the end I couldn’t resolve the last fight, it happens in sport, you win and you lose. Our strength is the team, we are much better as a team, individually we are very good but as a team we are stronger, we have the chance of the team test and we will give our all, we know we have had good results for the teams, we know that it is also a difficult competition, all the teams are tough, but to win you have to beat the strongest”, were the impressions of Francisco Limardo.

THE TRIUMPH OF THE USA

In the women’s individual foil final, Canadian Eleanor Grace Harvey (28) faced American Lee Kiefer (29), the latter winning by 15 points to 6.

Lee Kiefer at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics managed to win first place and win the gold medal. Moreover, in the recent Milan 2023 World Championships, he achieved third place and a bronze medal in individual foil.

“It’s my first medal (at the Pan American Games) and I really wanted to get it. “I’m very excited because before I was in a championship and I was second and now winning first place makes me very happy,” Kiefer said.

The silver medal was won by Canadian Harvey with 6 hits and the bronze medals went to Brazil representing Mariana Nelz and Canada with Zi Jia Guo.

Written by Valentina López