world championships 2015

It was my first senior World Championships that I was going to and the most important tournament for worldwide fencers that want to qualify for the Olympic Games. I had a good day at Pan Am Championships earlier this season, which was another very important tournament for the qualification, and I was hoping that I would have another good day. The day started very well in my pool winning the first two bouts 5-0 and 5-1, and then I lost my third bout in overtime. My plan was to win all bouts in my pool and have a pass to go in the main top64 direct elimination tableau the next day. I knew I had to win all my bouts to skip the long way to the top64 tableau and at this point I was trying to get a good indicator to have an easier path. I ended up winning another bout 5-1 but also losing another one in overtime. I had a pretty good indicator and was ranked 66th after pools. I fenced Alexandre Bouzaid from Senegal (ex-Frenchman) and won 15-14 while leading the whole bout. The score was very close but I felt I was in control from beginning to end. I had to fence Ruben Limardo from Venezuela afterwards to get in top64. I already fenced him earlier this season at PanAms and I knew it would be a tough bout. I mentally prepared to give a fight with all I had from start because Ruben is very dangerous when he takes the leading, even if it's one or two points. The 2012 Olympic Champion took the lead from the start and I couldn't do anything that would break him to have a chance to come back. I eventually lost 13-4 when I needed to run at while and pray for some magic to happen but he was ready for it and his lead got bigger and bigger while the time remaining got smaller and smaller. It was the end of the day for me but with a little bit of perspective, I am decently happy about the day I had. Ruben is probably the worst match in the world for me because we basically have the same style but he is stronger than me in every aspect. I finished 79th on 208 fencers and I had to focus on team event four days later.

We were fencing USA in team event in the top32 tableau and all of us (Leland Guillemin, Hugues Boisvert-Simard, Jean Lelion and myself) were very happy to see another opportunity for the USA-CAN rivalry. For both of our team, that match was very important for A)Make points for the Olympic qualification and B)Stop the other team from making some. The Americans did a lot of preparation for this match and we could feel the pressure they had. All of them looked ready but very stressed about that match including the coach. Normally, Hugues finishes the match and the American were well aware of that and made their plan accordingly. Earlier this season, I beat Jason Pryor twice, Jimmy Moody and also Yeisser Ramirez from their team and Victor Gantsevich (National team coach for Canada) decided that I should finish instead of Hugues. It was the first time for me in the world circuit that I would finish and it was in a very crucial moment for men's épée team. Strangely, I did not feel any pressure. Nobody expected that move, the American coach first, and it added more pressure on the USA team from the start. They did not expect this and their plan they worked really hard on was already shaky and the match didn't even started. We were leading from the start without giving once the lead to the Americans. They caught up at the end to go in overtime. Jimmy Moody and I, one hit, one minute, winner takes it all. I knew the person that would initiate the action in overtime would have a major advantage over the other and I had to start my action right from the beginning. After 8 seconds, I launched an attack where neither of us could land the winning touch. After another 9 seconds I launched an attack finishing to the foot, that I knew he was aware that I would try but I didn't really care at this point because the initiative itself was more important than the element of surprise at this point. Single light for Canada. We've done it. One team was done, and in trouble for Olympic selection, and one team had to focus on the next bout. I was very happy to be on the side that had to focus on the next step. We had a very good day afterwards: losing against Hungary (World Champions), winning against Kazakhstan (Asian Champions), winning against Poland (Silver medallists at the Olympics) and barely losing to the Czech Republic. We ended up 10th on a total of 38 countries and we were all very happy about that.

I am very happy about my first World Championships and I look forward to the next ones. Now I have to pack my bag because I am fencing at the Pan Am Games in Toronto in 2 days. Let's just hope I will have some sleep on the plane...