South Korea Wins Silver in Men's Sabre Team at Fencing World Championships, Finishes 2nd Overall

The South Korean men's sabre fencing national team has won the silver medal in the team event at the World Championships.

The men's sabre team—composed of Oh Sang-uk, Park Sang-won (both of Daejeon Metropolitan City Hall), Do Kyung-dong (Daegu Metropolitan City Hall), and Hwang Hee-geun (Korea Armed Forces Athletic Corps)—finished as runners-up behind France at the 2026 World Championships held in Hong Kong on the 30th.

This marks South Korea's first podium finish in the men's sabre team event at the World Championships in three years since 2023.

Although they fell short of reclaiming the top spot for the first time in four years since 2022, they achieved a meaningful podium finish at the World Championships with less than two months remaining before the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.

Do Kyung-dong, who captured a silver medal in the individual event of this tournament to reach the World Championships individual podium for the first time, also secured a silver medal in the team event.

After defeating the Philippines 45-20 in the Round of 32, the men's sabre team successively beat Spain 45-39 in the Round of 16 and Russia 45-37 in the quarterfinals.

The team edged out Romania 45-44 in a close semifinal match, but suffered a 31-45 defeat to France in the final after falling behind heavily from the early stages.

In the women's foil team event, Lee Se-joo (North Chungcheong Provincial Office), Mo Byeol-i (Yeongjong-gu Office, Incheon), Park Ji-hee, and Shim So-eun (both of Seoul Metropolitan Government) competed and finished in 13th place.

Preparing for the championships amidst administrative disruptions—as the Korea Fencing Federation building at the Seoul Olympic Park Handball Gymnasium was blocked for over a month due to protests denouncing the shortage of ballot papers in the June 3 local elections—South Korea finished second overall behind Italy (4 golds, 4 silvers) with 1 gold, 2 silvers, and 1 bronze medal.

The gold medal was claimed by Song Se-ra (Busan Metropolitan City Hall) in the women's epee individual event.

After slowing down without securing any gold medals in the two previous tournaments (7th in 2023 and 10th in 2025) following 2022 (3 golds, 2nd overall), South Korea returned to the World Championships top 3 for the first time in four years.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.