(Tokoname [Japan] = Yonhap News) Reporter Choi Song-ah = The Korean women's fencing saber team won the gold medal in the team event at the Asian Games for the first time in eight years.
The women's saber team, consisting of Jeon Ha-young (Seoul City Hall), Kim Jeong-mi, Seo Ji-yeon (Ansan City Hall), and Choi Se-bin (Daejeon Metropolitan City Hall), won the championship by defeating Japan 45-31 in the team finals of the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games held at the Aichi Sky Expo in Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture, Japan on the 27th.
This is the 20th gold medal for the Korean team in this competition.
Korea, which reached the top in the women's saber team event at Incheon in 2014 and Jakarta-Palembang in 2018, only won a bronze medal at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games, but succeeded in regaining the top spot after eight years.
The women's saber team event starts from the round of 16 and competes for medals through a tournament. The matchups are determined based on the seeds assigned through the performance of each country's individual participants.
Korea, which passed the round of 16 with a bye, defeated Hong Kong 45-28 in the quarterfinals, and also won the semifinals against China after taking the lead from the beginning.
Former World No. 1 Jeon Ha-young, who was disappointed by being eliminated in the quarterfinals in the individual competition, took the lead against Lao Shui in the semifinals with a score of 5-1 in the first round, and in the fifth round when she clashed with Jang Shin-yi, she narrowed the score to 25-16, regaining her 'ace' status and leading the way to victory.
Korea, which faced Japan in the semifinals of the Hangzhou Tournament and was in a battle of revenge in the finals, defeated Japan's star Misaki Emura, the individual winner of this tournament, in the first round by Sebin Choi, 5-2.
Hayoung Jeon went one step further with 10-6 in the second round against Yui Sano, and Jiyeon Seo, a 33-year-old veteran and the only member of the women's saber team born in the 1990s, took the lead by widening the gap to 15-8 in the third round against Yuina Kaneko.
Choi Se-bin allowed Sano to trail 15-12 in the early rounds in the 4th round, but he took advantage of his long-time step and responded with consecutive points to finish 20-12.
In the fifth round, around the turning point, Seo Ji-yeon faced Emura and created a double-digit gap at 25-15.
In the 6th round, Korea took a comfortable lead of 30-17 with Jeon Ha-young pushing Kaneko with all her might, but during the 7th round, Seo Ji-yeon suffered an injury after colliding with Sano and was quickly replaced by Kim Jung-mi, but finished with 35-19.
In the 8th round, Choi Se-bin struggled with Japan's substitute Seri Ozaki's counterattack, narrowing the score to 40-25, but in the final 9th round, when the aces of both teams clashed, Jeon Ha-young scored the 45th point to announce victory over Emura, completing the final gold medal in fencing of this tournament.
In the men's epee team event held earlier that day, Park Sang-young, Jang Hyo-min (Ulsan Metropolitan City Hall), Nam Yeon-ho (Korea National Sport University), and Kwon Oh-min (Korea Army Athletic Corps) won silver medals. Korea won a total of 4 gold medals, 4 silver medals, and 2 bronze medals in this competition, finishing in second place overall after Japan (6 gold, 2 silver, 4 bronze).
Korean fencing never missed the overall championship at the Asian Games from the 2010 Guangzhou Games to Hangzhou, but this time it lost its top spot to Japan.
