(Tokoname [Japan] = Yonhap News) Reporter Choi Song-ah = The Korean women's fencing team won a silver medal in the team event at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.
The women's foil team, consisting of Park Ji-hee, Shim So-eun (Seoul Metropolitan City Hall), Mo Byeol-i (Incheon Metropolitan City Yeongjong-gu Office), and Lee Se-ju (Chungbuk Provincial Office), lost 28-29 to Japan in the final of the team event held at the Aichi Sky Expo in Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture, Japan on the 26th.
The women's foil team event is an event that Korea has won five times in a row at the Asian Games, from the 1998 Bangkok Games to the 2014 Incheon Games.
Afterwards, he only won a bronze medal at the 2018 Jakarta/Palembang Games, but at the 2022 Hangzhou Games held in 2023 and this competition, he advanced to the finals for the second time in a row and won a silver medal.
Park Ji-hee, the individual silver medalist, also won her second medal in silver.
In the team event, where the matchups are determined based on the seeds assigned to the players from each country in the individual event, Korea received the second seed and passed the round of 16 by default.
In the quarterfinals, they defeated Macau 45-32, and in the semifinals, they also defeated their rival China 43-35 to boost their momentum.
Mo Byeol, who was eliminated in the round of 16 in the individual competition, made a great performance by building a 10-7 lead against Zhang Siqi in the 3rd round, 21-16 in the 5th round against Fu Yingying, and 29-21 against Huang Qianqian in the 7th round.
Korea also had a tight match against the powerhouse Japan, which had three players in the top 10 in the individual world rankings, including this tournament's individual winner Yuka Ueno.
Park Ji-hee, who was the first runner, started off losing 3-5 to Sumire Tsuji, and then Mobyeol fought well against Ueno in the second round and followed with 5-6.
In the third round, So-eun Shim came back from 9-6 against Sera Azuma, but then conceded consecutive goals to tie the match at 9-9.
In the 4th round, Mobyeol clashed with Tsuji and gave up the lead 11-13 after a seesaw game, but Jihee Park succeeded in turning it around 16-14 in the 5th round against Azuma.
In the 6th round, So-eun Shim showed off her concentration in both attack and defense against Ueno and played an overwhelming game, leading the team to 19-14.
In the 7th round of her match against Azuma, Mo Byeol ran away to 21-14, and then faced fierce pursuit, narrowing the score to 22-19, but in the 8th round, Shim So-eun continued her lead to 26-22 in her match against Tsuji.
In the final 9th round where the aces of both teams meet, Park Ji-hee attempted to seek revenge by holding a return match in the individual final against Ueno, but instead collapsed after conceding 7 consecutive goals at 27-22.
Park Ji-hee scored a counterattack with 16 seconds left to make it 28-29, but there was not enough time to turn the tide again.
After the game, Park Ji-hee said, "It's only been a year since I last ran as a runner in the team event, but I came out thinking that I've grown because my teammates trusted me a lot, but I still feel like I'm lacking a lot. I was able to get to this point thanks to my younger siblings' good work against Japan, which we lost to by double points during the World Cup, but it's disappointing."
He added, “It is really difficult to win the Olympic qualification, but I want to prepare well for the remaining two years and show a good performance by qualifying for the 2028 Los Angeles (LA) Olympics.”
