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South Korea's Jeon Ha-young (left) battles Olga Kharlan of Ukraine during the women's sabre fencing team event at the Paris Olympics at Grand Palais in Paris on Saturday. (Yonhap) |
South Korea took silver in the women's sabre fencing team event at the Paris Olympics on Saturday, after blowing a late lead against Ukraine in the final.
South Korea, world No. 4, lost to third-ranked Ukraine 45-42 at Grand Palais in the French capital.
Jeon Eun-hye, Jeon Ha-young, Choi Se-bin and alternate Yoon Ji-su tried to give South Korea its first gold in the women's sabre team event. South Korea won bronze at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics but Yoon, 31, was the only carryover from that team in Paris.
South Korea held a 40-37 lead entering the ninth and final bout. But Olga Kharlan outscored Jeon Ha-young 8-2 to complete Ukraine's comeback.
Team fencing matches are contested in a series of nine head-to-head bouts. Each bout is three minutes long but it ends when one team's score reaches a multiple of five.
The objective is to score 45 points first or to have more points than the opponent at the end of the ninth bout.
Jeon Eun-hye lost the opening bout to Kharlan 5-3, but then Jeon Ha-young handled Yuliia Bakastova 7-3 to put South Korea up 10-8.
In the fourth bout, Jeon Eun-hye beat Bakastova 5-1 to extend South Korea's lead to 20-14.
But Kharlan singlehandedly led Ukraine's comeback. In the sixth bout, she outscored Choi 9-5 to make this a two-point match at 25-23 South Korea.
The teams each scored five points in the next two bouts, and then South Korea went up by three, 40-37, after Jeon Eun-hye edged Alina Komashchuk 5-4 in the penultimate bout.
Jeon Ha-young, though, couldn't preserve that three-point advantage.
Kharlan, the bronze medal winner in the individual event on Monday, scored the first three points to tie it up at 40-40. Jeon briefly pulled ahead with two points, but she didn't score again as Kharlan grabbed the next five points to complete the rally that gave Ukraine its first gold medal of the Paris Olympics.
Yoon, the oldest member of the team, said it was "a huge honor" to win South Korea's first silver medal in the women's sabre team event.
"I came here feeling a lot of pressure to carry the team as the most senior member, but my teammates shared that burden with me," Yoon said. "I want to keep helping them perform better."
Jeon Ha-young, the youngest of the group at 22, said the silver medal was a bittersweet one for her.
"I am happy with this silver but at the same time, I am disappointed that I didn't get the job done in the end," she said. "If I have a chance to play at the next Olympics, I will try to be more composed and help the team win the gold medal."
In the semifinals earlier Saturday, South Korea had scored a stunning 45-36 win over the home team France, the world's No. 1 unit that featured the individual gold and silver medalists in Manon Apithy-Brunet and Sara Balzer.
The late collapse in the final notwithstanding, the upset win over France can be a key building block for the young South Korean team.
"I thought we were the only team that could beat France here," said the 23-year-old Choi. "And it felt great to get past them at a major competition like this. As we keep building experience, we should have a chance to win gold four years later."
During that win over France, Jeon Eun-hye subbed in for Yoon for the sixth bout. She managed to play both Apithy-Brunet and later Balzer to 5-5 ties to preserve South Korea's lead. Jeon started and played the entire gold medal match.
"We have so much trust in each other that I was ready to battle no matter when I would enter the match," Jeon said. "I want to thank Ji-su for giving me that opportunity. I am sure she wanted to keep playing, too."
This was South Korea's final fencing event. The country won gold medals in the men's sabre individual and team events, before adding the women's sabre team silver Saturday night. (Yonhap)
