HONG KONG, China, June 20, 2017—The 2017 Blue Cross Asian Fencing Championships have finished in Hong Kong, China, after completing 12 events including men’s and women’s team and individual competition in foil, sabre, and epee. The event, which took place at the AsiaWorld-Expo, featured more than 300 top-level fencers from throughout Asia and Oceania. Korea won seven of the 12 events, followed by China, which took four gold medals.
Individual Competition. In epee, Korea’s Young Mi Kang took the gold medal in the women’s event, overtaking Hong Kong’s Man Wai Vivian Kong in the final by a single touch, 13-12. This was a career-best for the 32-year-old Kang, who beat China’s Mingye Zhu in the semi-final also by a point, 8-7. Kong beat Olympic bronze medallist and number-two-ranked Yiwen Sun of China in the semi-final, 15-13. For the men, Korea and Kazakhstan faced-off in the finals, with Ruslan Kurbanov (KAZ) taking a career-best gold over Korean Youngjun Kweon, 15-10. Kweon beat third-ranked World Champion bronze and silver medallist Kyoungdoo Park in the semi-final, 15-12, while Kurbanov overtook eighth-ranked Jinsun Jung in the other semi-final, 15-13.
In foil, it was another career-best gold for China’s Xingxin Huo in the women’s event, where she beat Olympic silver and World Championship bronze medallist Hyunhee Nam of Korea, 15-6. Huo also beat World Championship silver medallist Korean Hee Sook Jeon in the semi-final, 12-11, while Nam defeated Japan’s Minami Kano, 15-11, in the same round. For the men, it was again career-bests for both fencers, with Korea’s Taegyu Ha overcoming Hong Kong’s Ka Long Cheung in the final, 15-11. Cheung beat Korea’s Young Ki Son in the semi-final, 15-9, while Ha won the round against China’s Haiwei Chen, 15-12.
For sabre, Korean Olympic gold medallist Jiyeon Kim scored victory in the final over her teammate, Jiyeon Seo, 15-11, in the women’s event. In the semi-final, both Koreans scored wide-margin victories over their opponents, with Kim beating Japan’s Misaki Emura, 15-9, and Seo winning against China’s Xinting Yu with the same score. In the men’s event, fourth-ranked World Championship silver and bronze medallist Bongil Gu of Korea won gold against Iran’s Mohammad Rahbari, 15-8. Gu beat another Iranian, Ali Pakdaman, 15-7, in the semi-final, while Rahbari overtook Korea’s Junho Kim, 15-13, in the same round.
Team Competition. In epee team competition, China prevailed over Korea in the women’s event, 34-30. The Chinese women beat Hong Kong in the semi-final, 45-37, while Korea defeated Japan with the same score. Japan took the bronze medal, 45-41, over Hong Kong. For the men’s event, Korea was victorious over China, 45-35, in the gold-medal round. Korea beat Hong Kong in the semi-final, 45-40, and China took-out Japan with the same score. Japan also took bronze in this event over Hong Kong, winning with a score of 45-30.
In the foil team events, the Korean women’s team scored a strong win over Japan, 45-30, in the final match to win gold. Japan had an even stronger win over China in the semi-final, winning it 45-24, while Korea beat Hong Kong, 45-34. China took the bronze medal over Hong Kong, 39-26. For the men’s team event, China also had a wide-margin win over Korea in the final, 45-29. Korea had a much closer score in the semi-final, where they beat Hong Kong, 45-41; China defeated Japan in the same round, 45-31. Hong Kong took the bronze medal, beating Japan, 45-35.
In team sabre, China took gold in the women’s final, defeating Korea in an exciting match with a close score of 45-43. Both teams beat opponents—Korea winning over Hong Kong and China beating Japan—in the semi-final with the same score for each of 45-30. Japan earned the bronze over Hong Kong, 45-38. For the men’s event, Korea won the gold medal over Iran in a close, audience-pleasing match ending with a 45-42 score. Also with the same score in both semi-final matches—45-28—Korea beat China and Iran defeated Hong Kong. China took the bronze against Hong Kong, 45-34.
Final results and details may be found on the FIE Web site, here.
