S. Korea captures gold in women's sabre fencing team event
Summary
South Korea won gold in the women’s sabre fencing team event at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Sunday, giving the country its fourth fencing title on the last day of the sport. Choi Se-bin, Jeon Ha-young, Seo Ji-yeon and Kim Jeong-mi beat Japan 45-31 at Aichi Sky Expo in Tokoname. The team claimed the title despite no South Korean fencer winning an individual medal earlier in the competition.
Key Facts
- South Korea finished fencing at the Asian Games with four gold medals, four silver medals and two bronze medals.
- The team event used nine head-to-head bouts, with each bout lasting three minutes and ending early if a team reached a multiple of five points.
- Choi Se-bin, Jeon Ha-young, Seo Ji-yeon and Kim Jeong-mi formed the South Korean lineup in the final against Japan.
- Seo Ji-yeon appeared to twist her knee after slipping during her bout against Yui Sano, and substitute Kim Jeong-mi finished the match for South Korea.
South Korea's women's sabre team celebrates with the national flag after winning the gold medal in the women's team sabre final against Japan at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games at Aichi Sky Expo in Tokoname, Japan, Sunday. Yonhap
South Korea struck gold in the women's sabre fencing team event at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Sunday, delivering the country's fourth fencing title on the sport's last day here.
The team of Choi Se-bin, Jeon Ha-young, Seo Ji-yeon and Kim Jeong-mi took down Japan's Misaki Emura, Yui Sano, Yuina Kaneko and Seri Ozaki by 45-31 at Aichi Sky Expo in Tokoname, south of the main host city, Nagoya.
None of the South Korean fencers won an individual medal earlier in the competition but won the team title together.
Choi was on the 2023 Asian Games team that won bronze behind Uzbekistan and Japan.
South Korea finished fencing with four gold medals, four silver medals and two bronze medals.
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.
Choi opened the match by beating Emura 5-2, and Jeon took the next bout against Sano by 5-4.
Seo fought off some early push from Kaneko and won her duel by 5-2, pushing South Korea's lead to 15-8.
Choi went up against Sano next. The Japanese fencer scored the first four points of that showdown, before Choi got the next five in response to put South Korea up 20-12.
Seo then got two quick points against Emura en route to a 5-3 win, with South Korea now up 25-15.
South Korea then overcame an apparent knee injury to Seo and cruised to the gold.
After Jeon took care of Kaneko 5-2, Seo was leading Sano 4-2 when she slipped and fell, apparently twisting her knee on the way down.
Substitute Kim Jeong-mi came on for Seo and got the one final point to close out that bout, with South Korea now up 35-19.
The score was 40-25 after the Choi-Ozaki match. Jeon only needed five more points for the title, while Ozaki had to get 20 more points — virtually an insurmountable deficit at that point. And Jeon finished off Japan with plenty of time to spare.
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