(Tokoname [Japan] = Yonhap News) Reporter Choi Song-ah = The Korean men's fencing saber team achieved a milestone by winning four consecutive gold medals in the Asian Games team event.
The men's saber team, consisting of Oh Sang-wook, Park Sang-won (Daejeon Metropolitan City Hall), Do Gyeong-dong (Daegu Metropolitan City Hall), and Hwang Hee-geun (Armed Forces Athletic Corps), won the championship, beating Japan 45-44 in the men's saber team finals of the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games held at the Aichi Sky Expo in Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture, Japan on the 26th.
This is the 15th gold medal for the Korean team in this competition.
Korea succeeded in winning four consecutive games in the men's saber team event at the Asian Games, following Incheon in 2014, Jakarta and Palembang in 2018, and Hangzhou in 2022 in 2023.
'Ace' Oh Sang-wook, who successfully defended his title in the individual competition on the 23rd, also won the team competition with his colleagues, winning two gold medals for the second time in a row.
Oh Sang-wook won his fifth gold medal in the Asian Games, moving one closer to saber senior Koo Bon-gil (6), who holds the record for the most gold medals by a Korean player.
Korea won gold medals in the men's saber team event three times in a row at the Olympics, including the 2012 London Games, the 2020 Tokyo Games in 2021, and the 2024 Paris Games, and further solidified its image as the 'strongest' by maintaining its hegemony at the Asian Games for over 10 years.
In the fencing team competition, each country competes for the championship in a tournament based on the seed assigned to them based on their individual performance.
Korea received the No. 1 seed and passed the round of 16 with a bye, and won 45-25 over India in the quarterfinals and 45-24 in the semifinals against Hong Kong.
On this day, after Korea suffered a one-point loss to Japan in the women's foil team finals, Korea and Japan played in the men's saber team finals, making it a battle of revenge for Korea.
Park Sang-won was the first to take the field and dominated the match against Japanese star Mao Kokubo with a score of 5-3, followed by Oh Sang-wook with a 10-6 score against Japanese veteran Kento Yoshida.
Korea ran further to 15-8 after the third round when Do Kyung-dong met Hayato Tsubo, but Park Sang-won struggled against Yoshida's skillful play in the fourth round, but finished well with a 20-16 score.
In the 5th round, Do Kyung-dong maintained a 25-21 lead by shaking off Kokubo's pursuit, and Oh Sang-wook maintained a 30-26 advantage after being chased by Tsubo in the 6th round, seemingly getting closer to his 4th consecutive loss.
However, as soon as the 7th round began, Do Gyeong-dong gave Yoshida 6 points in a row, allowing a 30-32 comeback, and eventually gave up the 35th point first, falling behind 32-35.
Korea's Park Sang-won succeeded in a comeback against Tsubo by scoring 5 consecutive points at 34-38 in the 8th round, but was unable to easily escape the inferiority by conceding one point at 39-39.
Oh Sang-wook, who entered the final 9 rounds one point behind, was also in desperate danger as he was down 41-44 against Kokubo, but in a situation where giving up one more point would have ended in defeat, Oh Sang-wook scored four points in a row to complete the comeback.
On the second day of the team competition, Korean fencing won 3 gold medals, 3 silver medals, and 2 bronze medals in the competition, adding a gold medal in the men's saber and a silver medal in the women's foil.
On the 27th, the final day of fencing at this competition, the men's epee and women's saber team competitions will be held.
