▲ The men's sabre national team: Park Sang-won (from left), Oh Sang-uk, Coach Won Woo-young, Hwang Hee-geun, and Do Gyeong-dong
The South Korean men's sabre fencing team has reclaimed the top spot in the team event at the Asian Championships for the first time in two years.
The team, consisting of Oh Sang-uk, Park Sang-won (both from Daejeon City Hall), Do Gyeong-dong (Daegu City Hall), and Hwang Hee-geun (Korea Armed Forces Athletic Corps), won the team event at the Asian Championships held in New Delhi, India, today (June 23).
The men's sabre team, which has been undergoing a generational shift around the time of their team gold medal win at the 2024 Paris Olympics, finished as runners-up to Japan at last year's Asian Championships, missing out on a fourth consecutive title. However, they have now successfully reclaimed the championship after two years.
The men's sabre team will now aim for their fourth consecutive team title at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, which will be held this September.
Team "ace" Oh Sang-uk secured his second gold medal of the tournament, having already won the individual event.
After receiving a bye in the round of 16, the men's sabre team defeated Saudi Arabia 45-24 in the quarterfinals and Kazakhstan 45-34 in the semifinals.
In the final, which was a showdown against Japan, they secured a resounding 45-29 victory.
On the same day, the women's foil team, featuring Park Ji-hee, Shim So-eun (both from Seoul City Hall), Mo Byeol-i (Incheon Jung-gu Office), and Lee Se-ju (Chungbuk Provincial Office), competed and won the bronze medal, finishing behind Japan and China.
While the administrative functions of the Korea Fencing Federation have been paralyzed due to protests blocking access to the Handball Gymnasium at the Olympic Park in Seoul—where the federation is located—over the shortage of ballots in the June 3 local elections, the national fencing team is currently ranked second overall in the tournament with two gold, one silver, and five bronze medals.
The national team will look to add more medals in the women's sabre and men's epee team events on June 23, and the women's epee and men's foil team events on June 24.
(Photo: Courtesy of the Korea Fencing Federation, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.