(Asian Games) Youthful energy, veteran presence lead to gold medal victory in fencing

JAKARTA, Aug. 22 (Yonhap) — In 2014, at the tender age of 21, South Korean fencer Yoon Ji-su was the youngest member of the national women’s sabre team that won the Asian Games gold medal.

Fast forward to 2018. Yoon was once again a part of an Asiad gold medal-winning team in Jakarta on Wednesday. And she was still the youngest fencer in the quartet that included Kim Ji-yeon (30 years old), Hwang Seon-a (28) and Choi Soo-yeon (27).

And Yoon wouldn’t have it any other way.

South Korean sabre fencers Choi Soo-yeon (L) and Yoon Ji-su celebrate their women’s team gold medal over China at the 18th Asian Games at Jakarta Convention Center (JCC) Cendrawasih Hall in Jakarta on Aug. 22, 2018. (Yonhap)

“I am so happy to win another gold with these big sisters,” Yoon said after South Korea defeated China 45-36 at Jakarta Convention Center (JCC) Cendrawasih Hall. “I was hurting (following a recent knee injury) but I tried to put the pain out of my mind and make sure I wouldn’t let my teammates down.”

Of the current four, Yoon, Kim and Hwang also won the 2014 Asian Games gold together.

On Wednesday, Yoon did more than her share to contribute to the win.

In team fencing, each match consists of nine individual bouts, and each member of a team faces each member of the opposing team once. A head-to-head bout is three minutes long, but it ends when one team’s score reaches a multiple of five. The objective is to get to 45 points first by the end of the ninth bout. But if neither side has 45 points at the end, the team with more points is declared the winner.

In the third bout, Yoon overwhelmed Qian Jian, the individual gold medalist from Sunday, in a 5-2 victory, putting South Korea up by 15-8.

South Korea was up 25-20 when Yoon entered the sixth bout against Yang Hengyu. And Yoon had trouble against Yang’s ferocious charge and allowed the Chinese to tie the score at 28-28. Her mind “went blank” at that moment, Yoon said.

But Yoon regrouped and scored the next two points to reach 30, and hand things over to Choi, who proceeded to beat Qian 5-1 to stake South Korea to a 35-29 lead.

Yoon then returned to the piste and beat Shao Yaqi 5-1, giving South Korea a 40-30 lead.

Kim closed out the win by getting the last five points.

Yoon said every fencer is bound to run into trouble at some point in a typical team match, and on this particular day, she and her teammates were all able to overcome that hurdle.

“The Chinese fencers have the size advantage on us, but we were the quicker team,” she said. “They had the reach but we had the speed. And we wanted to be ready to exploit that.”

South Korean fencer Kim Ji-yeon celebrates her clinching point in the women’s team sabre final against China at the 18th Asian Games at Jakarta Convention Center (JCC) Cendrawasih Hall in Jakarta on Aug. 22, 2018. (Yonhap)

With Yoon giving the team the youthful edge, it was Kim, the most decorated member of the team, who provided the stability. The 2012 individual sabre champion was competing in her final Asian Games and couldn’t have asked for a better send-off after settling for bronze in the individual event on Sunday.

“I was disappointed with the individual bronze, and I wanted to wrap it all up with the team gold medal,” Kim said. “I was really determined to win this match.”

Kim led off the match against Shao Yaqi and looked decidedly shaky in going down 4-0 in a matter of seconds. Kim dug deep and scored five straight points to turn the tide. It’s likely someone with less big-match experience would have crumbled right then and there.

Kim admitted she hasn’t usually done well leading off team matches but she had faith in herself and her teammates.

“I was battling some nerves and I had trouble concentrating. But in the end, we were all able to make the most of our speed and quick steps,” she said. “This gold means so much more to me than 2014 because this was my last one.”