S. Korea blows big lead to settle for silver in men's epee fencing team event
Nam Yeon-ho of South Korea battles Vadim Sharlaimov of Kazakhstan during the men's epee fencing team event final at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games at Aichi Sky Expo in Tokoname, Japan, Sunday. Yonhap
South Korea squandered a big lead and settled for silver in the men's epee fencing team event at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Sunday.
The team of Park Sang-young, Jang Hyo-min, Nam Yeon-ho and substitute Kwon O-min lost to Kazakhstan's Kirill Prokhodov, Ruslan Kurbanov, Vadim Sharlaimov and Yerlik Sertay by 43-42 at Aichi Sky Expo in Tokoname, south of the main host city, Nagoya.
None of the three South Korean fencers came close to medal contention in the individual event, but they joined forces for South Korea's 12th consecutive men's epee team medal.
Team fencing events are contested in nine head-to-head bouts. Each bout is three minutes long, but it ends when one team's score reaches a multiple of five.
A team scoring 45 points first or having more points than the opponent at the end of the ninth bout wins the event.
Park and Prokhodov each scored three points in the opening bout, and then Jang outscored Kurbanov 3-1 in the next bout for a 6-4 South Korean lead.
The advantage grew to 12-9 when Nam won his bout against Sharlaimov. Park then blew the match wide open by outscoring Sertay 7-1 to give South Korea a 19-10 advantage.
Kazakhstan crept back into the match, winning the next two bouts to cut the South Korean lead to 30-24.
After Nam battled Kurbanov to a 5-5 draw in his bout to keep South Korea up by six at 35-29, Sharlaimov beat Park 5-1 to make it a two-point battle at 36-34.
It came down to the final bout between Jang and Prokhodov.
They kept trading points until they found themselves tied at 42-42, sending the final into a sudden-death extra session.
And seven seconds into the one-minute session, Prokhodov got the clinching point for Kazakhstan to complete the comeback.