Fencing star Oh Sang-wook wins individual saber event at Asian Championships

Defeating Shen Tianfeng 15-9 in the final, the first individual gold in five years since 2019, brightens the medal prospects at next month’s Paris Olympics

Oh Sang-wook (right) is attempting to attack China’s Shen Tianfeng in the final of the men’s saber individual event at the 2024 Asian Fencing Championships held in Kuwait on the 22nd (local time).

Korean fencing star Oh Sang-wook (28) won the top international competition for the first time since returning from injury and revealed his prospects for a medal at the Paris Olympics. Oh Sang-wook defeated Shen Tianfeng (23, China) 15-9 in the final of the men’s saber individual event at the 2024 Asian Fencing Championships held in Kuwait on the 22nd (local time). This is the second time that Oh Sang-wook has reached the top of the individual competition at this competition, five years after the 2019 Chiba (Japan) competition.

Oh Sang-wook, who won two gold medals in the individual and team events at the Hangzhou Asian Games in September last year, injured his wrist early this year and had difficulty controlling his condition. Until this day, the last time Oh Sang-wook stood on the podium in an individual event at an international competition was as runner-up at the Algiers (Algeria) Grand Prix in November last year. Oh Sang-wook said, “I had a bad performance (eliminated in the round of 16) at the Madrid (Spain) World Cup last month, but I used that as a foundation to work out harder and I am more happy with the good results.”

Oh Sang-wook’s revival is also good news for the men’s saber team ‘Avengers’ (Avengers + Fencing), which is attempting to win its third consecutive team event at the Paris Olympics, which opens on the 26th of next month. The Appengers are still ranked No. 1 in the world rankings of the International Fencing Federation (FIE). However, with Kim Jeong-hwan (41) and Kim Jun-ho (30) missing among the gold medalists at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the calculations were bound to become complicated if even Oh Sang-wook was not in normal condition.

In the women’s epee individual event held on the same day, Song Se-ra (31) and Kang Young-mi (39) both won bronze medals. Both players lost to Chinese players in the semifinals and failed to advance to the finals. The men’s saber team and the women’s epee team will attempt to win their fourth consecutive team title at this tournament on the 25th. 고스톱