Ryan Rousell went 0-6 in Category A of the Men’s Épée Individual group play while Pierre Mainville went 1-5 in Category B, failing to qualify for the Round of 16.
Rousell, a 24-year-old Saskatoon native, lost 5-2 to Germany’s Maurice Schmidt, 5-1 to both Italy’s Emanuele Lambertini and Iraq’s Zainulabdeen Al-Madhkhoori, and 5-0 to Turkey’s Hakan Akkaya.
He also took the eventual silver medallist Maxim Shaburov of the Russian Paralympic Committee and bronze medallist Jianquan Tian of China the distance, losing 5-4 in both matches.
Mainville, hailing from St-Colomban, Que., fell 5-2 to both Japan’s Michinobu Fujita and Iraq’s Ammar Ali, and 5-1 to Ukraine’s Anton Datsko. He lost by identical 5-1 results to eventual Gold medallist Alexander Kuzyukov of the Russian Olympic Committee and Bronze medallist Dimitri Coutya of Great Britain.
The 48-year-old veteran athlete did secure a 5-4 victory over France’s Yohan Peter for Canada’s lone fencing victory of the day.
It has been a difficult start for the Canadians in Wheelchair Fencing. Rousell failed to qualify for the Round of 16 in the men’s individual sabre competition earlier in the week, and Mainville lost in the Round of 16.
Also failing to qualify for the playoff round for Canada was Quebec native Ruth Sylvia Morel in the women’s individual sabre and Quebec native Matthieu Hébert in the men’s individual sabre.