Fares Arfa made Canadian Olympic fencing history on Saturday, reaching the quarterfinals of the men’s sabre event and finishing in eighth place, the best finish by a Canadian male fencer in Olympic history.
Arfa’s biggest surprise was his victory in the round of 32. Back then, the 27th seed surprised sixth seeded Hungarian Aron Szilagyi 15-8. Although Szilagyi is seeded sixth, he is one of the greatest fencers of all time. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Szilagyi became the first Olympic fencer ever to win a gold medal at three consecutive Olympic Games and also took first place in the 2012 Olympic Games in Londonand that 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Arfa followed up his surprise victory over Szilagyi with a 15-8 win over 11th seed Bolade Apithy of France, who won two silver medals in individual events at the European Fencing Championships.
Meanwhile, in fencing on Sunday, there was another Canadian upset in the women’s individual foil. Yunjia Zhang of Toronto, Ontario, defeated seventh-seeded China’s Qingyuan Chen in the second round by a score of 15-7. Zhang is the third remaining Canadian team in women’s foil fencing, along with Eleanor Harvey of Hamilton, Ontario, and Jessica Guo of Toronto.
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