Fencers end Asian Games with 6 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze medals

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Published: 29 Sep. 2023, 19:51

Fencers end Asian Games with 6 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze medals

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]

Korea picked up two bronze medals on Friday to end the fencing competition at the Hangzhou Asian Games with six gold, three silver and three bronze medals.

The Korean women’s sabre team failed to defend their gold medal from the 2018 Asian Games, losing a close-fought semifinal to Japan 45-42 to finish with a bronze medal. In fencing, the loser of both semifinals get bronze.

The men’s épée team faced a similar fate, losing their semifinal to Japan 45-34 to wind up with bronze, the same result the team saw at the 2018 Games.

Friday’s two bronze medals round off the fencing schedule for this year’s Asiad with Korea topping the table with a total of 12 medals.

The team’s six gold medals came from men’s sabre individual, women’s épée individual, women’s sabre individual, men’s team foil, women’s team épée and men’s team sabre, with silver medals in men’s individual sabre, women’s individual épée and women’s team foil.

The final bronze medal came from women’s individual foil.

Korea’s success in the team and individual events also meant that a number of athletes left the Games with multiple medals, most notably women’s épéeist Choi In-jeong and men’s sabrist Oh Sang-uk, both of whom won gold in their team and individual events.

Men’s sabrist Gu Bong-il and women’s épéeist Song Se-ra each took a gold and silver medal, both having faced their own teammate in the individual gold medal match and finished second, and women’s foilist Hong Se-na took silver and bronze.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]