Jeong-Hyun Yoon wins bronze medal in men's foil fencing at Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games

(Tokoname [Japan] = Yonhap News) Reporter Choi Song-ah = Yoon Jeong-hyeon (25, Hwaseong City Hall) won the first medal for the Korean fencing team at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.

Jeong-Hyun Yoon, ranked 32nd in the International Fencing Federation (FIE) rankings, lost 13-15 to Ryan Choi (Hong Kong, ranked 7th in the world) in the men's foil semifinals at the competition held at the Aichi Sky Expo in Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture, Japan on the 22nd and won the bronze medal.

In the men's fencing individual foil competition, where medals are competed through a tournament starting from the round of 32, a joint bronze medal is awarded to the two losers of the semifinals.

Jeong-Hyun Yoon, who has a unique history of being introduced to fencing while living in Russia as a teenager and becoming a player, began his career as an adult national team member starting in the 2023-2024 season.

He gained confidence by winning a bronze medal in the individual event of the FIE World Cup for the first time at the Cairo Games in Egypt in March of last year, and he also won a bronze medal in the individual event at the Asian Championships last year, establishing himself as a new star in men's foil.

He won a bronze medal in the individual event at this year's Asian Championships and also stood on the podium at the Asian Games, his first international all-around competition.

Yoon Jeong-hyun, who passed the round of 32 on this day by default, gained momentum by defeating Jeon Yi-dong (Taiwan) 15-4 in the round of 16 and Daniil Kravtsov (Uzbekistan) 15-5 in the quarter-finals.

However, in the semifinals against Ryan Choi, the individual winner of last year's World Championships, he had to be satisfied with a bronze medal despite a close match after being pushed down 0-3 in the beginning.

Up to two people from each country can participate in the fencing individual event at this Asian Games.

Gwang-Hyeon Lee (Hwaseong City Hall), who played with Jeong-Hyun Yoon, lost 7-15 to Kazuki Iimura (Japan) in the quarterfinals and was eliminated.

The men's foil team, including them, will challenge for its third consecutive gold medal in the team event on the 25th.