Roberts Creek fencer Fynn Fafard achieved a milestone win at a senior men’s North American Cup on Jan. 6 with a huge upset over U.S.A.’s Benjamin Bratton (North American #1, World #27) in Virginia Beach, Virginia. With a mere 15 seconds remaining on the clock, and the score 12 to 10 in Bratton’s favour, Fafard launched two aggressive attacks pushing Bratton to the end of the piste, lunging and binding Bratton’s blade and scoring twice to force the match into overtime. The two fencers pushed each other offering fakes for 40 seconds before Bratton was ready to attack, only to have Fafard successfully parry and counterattack to emerge triumphant.
This victory seemed to set up a new level of confidence in 17-year-old Fafard – and last weekend in Quebec City, he reached another great milestone in his young career with his first Senior Men’s Gold Medal at a Canada Cup.
Fafard started the day in Quebec City with a bang, recording a 5-0 win over Maxime Brinck-Croteau (2016 Canadian Olympian in Rio) before going on to win all six of his poule matches.
Fafard maintained a perfect record throughout the day, winning five straight direct elimination matches to face Erik Medina Diaz of Cuba in the final. Diaz and Fafard exchanged leads until the end of the second period, with Medina Diaz enjoying a one-point margin of 10 to 9. But this would be his last lead of the match as Fafard would take six of the next seven points to win 15-11.
