Itongadol.- Israeli fencer Yuval Freilich claimed the bronze medal in the epee competition at the Peter Bakonyi World Cup event on Saturday night in Vancouver, Canada.
The 20-year-old overcame Olympic gold medalist Jean-Michel Lucenay of France and former world champions Paolo Pizzo of Italy and Nikolai Novosjolov of Estonia on his way to the semifinals where he was beaten 15-9 by German Constantin Boehm.
Freilich, who won the European junior title in each of the past two years, picked up precious ranking points in his quest to qualify for the Rio Olympics.
“I had a really tough road, but had an amazing competition,” said Freilich. “Fortunately, I had many opportunities to scale the podium as a junior, but I’m very pleased to do it now at the senior level. This gives me confidence that I can fence at the highest level.”