SEOUL, Korea, April 28, 2019—Korea’s Sanguk Oh and Ukraine’s Olga Kharlan won individual gold medals at the 2019 SK Telecom Seoul Sabre Grand Prix. The event drew 315 men’s and women’s sabre fencers in this sixth of a nine-event international series of Grand Prix competitions. It was held at the SK Handball Gym in Seoul’s Olympic Park.
Korea’s Oh, ranked second in the world, defeated Hungary’s two-time Olympic gold medallist, Aron Szilagyi, in the final match of individual men’s sabre by a single touch, 15-14. Szilagyi beat Korean and reigning world champion Junghwan Kim in the semi-final, 15-13, while Oh eliminated Germany’s Max Hartung, 15-2. Notably, Kim overcame USA’s number-one ranked Eli Dershwitz in the quarter-finals, 15-11.
Three-time world champion Kharlan took gold by one point in the final round of women’s individual sabre, 15-14, against Korea’s Olympic gold medallist, Jiyeon Kim. Kim defeated her teammate, Jiyeon Seo, in the semi-final, 15-10, while Kharlan beat France’s Manon Brunet, 15-12. Russian two-time world champion Sofya Velikaya went out in the quarter-finals to Brunet, 15-12. Russia’s Olympic gold medallist, Yana Egorian, was defeated in the round of 16 by France’s Caroline Queroli, 15-14, who was then beaten in the quarter-finals by Kim, 15-13. Russian reigning world champion Sofia Pozdniakova went out in the same round to Hungary’s Liza Pusztai, 15-11; Kharlan then beat Pusztai in the quarter-finals, 15-8.
Overall top-eight ranking for the 2019 SK Telecom Seoul Sabre Grand Prix men’s event include Sanguk Oh (KOR, gold), Aron Szilagyi (HUN, silver), Max Hartung (GER, bronze), Junghwan Kim (KOR, bronze), Eli Dershwitz (USA), Luca Curatoli (ITA), Kamil Ibragimov (RUS) and Bongil Gu (KOR).
Top-eight ranking for the women include Olga Kharlan (UKR, gold), Jiyeon Kim (KOR, silver), Manon Brunet (FRA, bronze), Jiyeon Seo (KOR, bronze), Sofya Velikaya (RUS), Liza Pusztai (HUN), Caroline Queroli (FRA) and Dina Galiakbarova (RUS).
Complete results for the 2019 SK Telecom Seoul Sabre Grand Prix may be found here on the FIE web site.