FENCING WOMEN’S SABRE, MEN’S EPEE LOSE TO KOREA, TAKE BRONZE IN TEAM EVENT

The women’s sabre and men’s epee teams added team bronze medals on the final day of fencing competition at the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games. The women’s sabre team of Yoon Ji-soo, Hong Ha-eun (Seoul Metropolitan Government), Jeon Eun-hye (Incheon Jung-gu Office) and Choi Se-bin (Jeonnam Province) finished in third place after falling 42-45 to Japan in the semifinals of the team event at the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games at the Hangzhou University of Electronic Arts Gymnasium in Hangzhou, China on Monday .In Asian Games fencing, both individual and team semifinal losers are awarded joint bronze medals. South Korea sought a third straight team title in the women’s sabre at the Asian Games, following Incheon 2014 and Jakarta-Palembang 2018, but were unable to overcome Japan, led by Misaki Emura, who won her second straight individual title at the world championships .Yoon Ji-soo, who won her first individual medal at the Asian Games three days earlier, was denied a double .South Korea, which thrashed Hong Kong 45-25 in the quarterfinals earlier in the day, got off to a slow start in the semifinals against Japan. However, Jeon Eun-hye scored nine points against Fukushima Shihomi in the fourth and Choi Se-bin overwhelmed Emura with a 7-1 run in the fifth to take a 25-21 lead .With a 40-31 lead going into the eighth round, it looked like South Korea was on its way to the final, but in the final nine rounds, which featured representatives from both teams, Yoon Ji-soo scored just two points against Emura and conceded 14 points. In the final of the women’s sabre team event, Japan will face Uzbekistan, who beat China in the semifinals .Kwon Young-joon (Iksan City Hall), Kim Jae-won (Chungbuk Fencing Association), Ma Se-gun (Busan Metropolitan City Hall) and Son Tae-jin (Sejong City Sports Association) also won bronze in the men’s epee team event .After defeating Kuwait 45-29 in the round of 16, Korea secured a medal in the quarterfinals with a close 45-41 victory over home team China. However, they had to settle for third place in the semifinals against Japan, who have the gold and silver individual medalists of the tournament (Koki Kano and Akira Komata), losing 34-45.The men’s epee team final was narrowed down to a showdown between Japan and Kazakhstan. With bronze medals in both team events on the final day, Korean fencing finished the Hangzhou Asian Games with six gold, three silver and three bronze medals. Korea has now won the overall fencing title at four consecutive Asian Games, dating back to Guangzhou 2010.The gold medals came in the men’s sabre individual (Oh Sang-wook) and team, women’s epee individual (Choi In-jung) and team, women’s sabre individual (Yoon Ji-soo), and men’s foil team. Korea won silver in the men’s sabre individual (Koo Bon-gil), women’s epee individual (Song Sera), and women’s foil team, and bronze in the women’s foil individual (Hong Sena), women’s sabre, and men’s epee teams. In the team event, all six competitors 안전놀이터 finished in the podium.