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Korea adds two more team golds in men's foil, women's épée

Published: 27 Sep. 2023, 21:31

JIM BULLEY
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The Korean men's foil team celebrate after beating China in the final of the team foil event at the Hangzhou Asian Games at Hangzhou Dianzi University Gymnasium Final Piste in Hangzhou, China on Wednesday. [YONHAP]

Team Korea added two more golds to its already impressive fencing medal haul at the Hangzhou Asian Games on Wednesday, winning both the men’s foil team event and women’s épée team event.

The men’s foil team started the medal action at the Hangzhou Dianzi University Gymnasium Final Piste in Hangzhou, China, beating the hosts 45-38 after a close-faught contest.

Yoon Ji-su leaves it all on the piste to take individual sabre gold

Korea’s Lee Kwang-hyun, Heo Jun and Ha Tae-kyu combined for the win, narrowly losing their first three bouts but rallying to tie things up and then take an overall victory across all nine stages.

The gold medal came despite all three Korean fencers and substitute Im Cheol-woo missing out on a medal in the individual event earlier in the week, with Lee dropping out in the quarterfinals and Im in the table of 16.

The men’s team’s success on the piste was followed minutes later by the women’s épée team, who beat Hong Kong in a tight 36-34 final.

The Korean women's epee team celebrate after beating Hong Kong in the final of the team epee event at the Hangzhou Asian Games at Hangzhou Dianzi University Gymnasium Final Piste in Hangzhou, China on Wednesday. [NEWS1]

The team title was Korea’s third medal in women’s épée, with Choi In-jeong and Song Se-ra having taken gold and silver respectively in an all-Korean final in the individual tournament.

Choi, the individual gold medalist, did not compete in the team event, acting instead as substitute alongside Song, Lee Hye-in and Kim Young-mi.

With the two team golds, Korea now has five gold — men’s sabre individual, women’s épée individual, women’s sabre individual, men’s team foil and women’s épée foil — two silver and one bronze medal in fencing at the Hangzhou Games, dominating the sport-specific medal table and putting the team just one gold off their 2018 Games result.

Plenty more opportunities to medal on the piste remain, with the women’s foil team and men’s sabre team both to be contested Thursday and the women’s sabre team and men’s épée team on Friday. Korea are the reigning champions in both team sabre events.

BY JIM BULLEY [[email protected]]