Korea fall to hosts France in women's team epee

Korean fencers Song Se-ra, Kang Young-mi and Lee Hye-in lost 37-31 to France’s Marie-Florence Candassamy, Auriane Mallo and Coraline Vitalis in the women’s epee team table of eight at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday, ending their medal run

Korean fencer Song Se-ra, left, attacks during the women’s epee team table of eight against France at the Paris Olympics at Grand Palais in Paris on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

Korean fencers Song Se-ra, Kang Young-mi and Lee Hye-in lost 37-31 to France’s Marie-Florence Candassamy, Auriane Mallo and Coraline Vitalis in the women’s epee team table of eight at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday, ending their medal run and heading into the classification draw.

Team matches feature three fencers facing another team of three in a relay format that pits every member against the opposing team over nine rounds until one team reaches 45 touches or has the higher score when time expires in the final round.

Korea failed to beat France even once during the entire match at Grand Palais in Paris. After Song lost the first round 3-2 to Candassamy, the other two members also fell short in the remaining rounds, resulting in a 37-31 loss.

The loss sends Korea to the classification round that decides which countries finish in fifth through eighth place.

A classification match between Korea and the United States is ongoing as of press time Tuesday.

Tuesday’s loss knocks Korea out of medal contention and marks another failure in fencing at this year’s Olympics, with gold medalist Oh Sang-uk still remaining as the only fencer to have secured a medal as of press time Tuesday.

Korea has won 16 medals in fencing and claimed five — one gold, one silver and three bronze — at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. That one silver was in the women's team epee.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]