South Korea reclaimed the women’s sabre team title at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Sunday, beating host Japan 45-31 to win the country’s 20th gold medal of the competition.
Jeon Ha-young of Seoul City Hall, Choi Se-bin of Daejeon City Hall and Seo Ji-yeon of Ansan City Hall built the lead before reserve Kim Jeong-mi, also of Ansan City Hall, was called into action after Seo suffered a knee injury late in the match at Aichi Sky Expo in Tokoname, Aichi prefecture.
Seo slipped and went down during the seventh bout. She had already scored four points, leaving Kim needing just one touch to complete it.
Kim scored that point immediately after entering the piste.
The victory gave Korea its first women’s sabre team gold since the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games. The country had won back-to-back titles in 2014 and 2018 before taking bronze at the Hangzhou Games.
The team gold also came after Korea missed the podium in the women’s individual sabre event earlier in the Games.
Korea advanced to the final with wins over Hong Kong in the quarterfinals and China in the semifinals.
Choi opened the final with a 5-2 win over Japan’s Misaki Emura, before Jeon extended the overall lead to 10-6. Seo then made it 15-8 in the third bout.
Japan threatened to narrow the gap in the fourth when Yui Sano scored the first four points against Choi, but Choi responded with five straight touches to put Korea ahead 20-12.
Korea led through the sixth bout before Seo’s injury forced the substitution.
Choi fenced the eighth bout and sent Jeon into the final leg with South Korea leading 40-25.
Japan scored several late points against Jeon, but the outcome was never seriously in doubt. Jeon landed the final touch at 44-31 to complete the win.
yeeun@heraldcorp.com
