The Pan American Games in full swing

Summary of today’s Quebec performances at the Pan American Games in Santiago

Fencing

Canadian sabers Fares Arfa and Shaul Gordon both placed third on the podium at the individual tournament in Santiago.

Arfa, who had won his six group fights, faced Venezuelan Eliecer Romero in the semi-final.

The Laval fencer was the first to score, but Romero quickly gave himself a 6-2 lead. Arfa came back and tied the game 9-9. However, it was the representative of Venezuela who had the last word 15-13. A defeat which earned Fares Arfa a bronze medal.

He defeated Mexican Brandon Romo 15-8 in the first round and Argentinian Pascual Di Tella 15-12 in the quarter-final.

For his part, Shaul Gordon lost 15-8 in his semi-final duel against the American Andrew Doddo, future gold medalist.

By his own admission, the Canadian took time before adapting his strategy to the face-to-face situation.

“My tactical approach was not the right one and I took eight touches before adjusting. It’s our first competition of the season and we wanted to see where we were. I know what to work on in the coming weeks. I know I speak for my teammate Fares too, we wanted to finish at the top of the podium,” mentioned Shaul Gordon, also a bronze medalist at the Pan American Games in Lima.

Arfa and Gordon will be back this weekend for the team event. François Cauchon will join them.

The women’s individual epee tournament was also contested on Wednesday in Santiago. Quebecer Alexanne Verret was in action during her second Pan American Games and was stopped in the quarter-finals. She lost 15-9 to her compatriot Ruien Xiao, who finished the tournament as a bronze medalist.

Verret concluded the group round with a record of 3 wins and 2 losses in the morning. In the first elimination round, she defeated Melisa Lara Englert Urrutia of Argentina 15-9.

Water polo

The Canadian women’s team won its final Group A match with a clear 32-7 victory over Mexico on Wednesday morning.

Serena Browne was the offensive star of David Paradelo’s squad with 5 goals. She was closely followed by Elyse Lemay-Lavoie, Emma Wright and Verica Bakoc, authors of 4 goals each. The other Quebecers, Floranne Carroll (2 goals), Axelle Crevier (2 goals) and Daphné Guèvremont (1 goal) were not left out either by also finding the back of the opposing net.

Jessica Gaudreault and Clara Vulpisi shared the work in front of the Canadian cage to block 19 of 26 Mexican shots.

“It was a good match and we held together. We progressed in these three games in the preparatory round, so that’s fun. […] We’re having fun and obviously our ultimate goal is to qualify for the Paris Olympics, so every game is one step closer to getting there.

We were treated to a duel between the men’s teams of Canada and Argentina, a few hours later. A clash awaited by the Canadian players, who had easily won their first two games of the tournament.

Canada ranked 12^e at the most recent World Championships and Argentina, 13^e.

The first quarter ended in favor of the Canadian players 4-3, then they increased their lead to 8-4 before the half. They remained in the lead from start to finish and recorded a 14-7 victory to conclude the preliminary phase.

“Throughout the match, we were really on the same page and we did well in our game. It was important to have a good match today to give us confidence for the next ones,” commented Jérémie Blanchard .

Nicolas Constantin-Bicari was the maple leaf’s top scorer with a total of 5 goals. Matthew Hallajian (3) and Jérémie Côté (3) also had success on offense, while Aleksa Gardijan, Bogdan Djerkovic and Reuel D’Souza blackened the scoresheet once each in this meeting.

“I’m really happy and satisfied with the way the team presented itself today,” added Blanchard. We didn’t have good performances against Argentina last year and we wanted to show that we were a better team. That’s what we did by playing as a united group. We must continue with the same confidence that we have had from the beginning. »

The water polo quarter-finals will take place on Thursday.

Archery

Busy day for Virginie Chénier in archery. After taking seventh place in the ranking round of the individual recurve bow competition, Chénier (645 points) secured his place in the round of 16 on Thursday. The Laval resident will meet the Cuban Yailin Paredes there.

In the mixed team competition, still in the recurve bow, Chénier and Eric Peters finished fifth in the ranking round with 1,320 points, 39 points behind first place held by the Americans (1,359) Casey Kaufhold and Brady Ellison. Their round of 16 match on Thursday pits them against Puerto Ricans Nilka Cotto and Adrian Munoz.

Finally, in the women’s team competition, the Quebecer and her Ontario teammates Stephanie Barrett and Amelia Gagné lost 5-1 against the Brazilians in the quarterfinals to finish the competition in sixth place.

Speed ​​canoeing

First in her qualifying heat in the C1 200m, Sophia Jensen obtained her automatic pass for the A final on Friday. On Wednesday morning, the Chelsea canoeist beat her closest pursuer, the American Andreea Ghizila, by half a second.

Rhythmic Gymnastics

Start of rhythmic gymnastics events! Tatiana Cocsanova is one of two Canadians in action in the individual competition. The athletes presented their hoop and ball program on Wednesday.

Cocsanova first took 12^e ranked first device due to its 26,650 points. Once she arrived at the ball, she ranked eighth (28,850) and at the same time qualified for the final scheduled for Friday.

Until then, the Quebecer will be back on Thursday for the club and ribbon qualifications. In the individual competition, she is provisionally at 10^e echelon with 55,500 points, just behind her compatriot Carmel Kallemaa (55,650).