Korea win third straight gold in men's team sabre

The Korean men’s sabre team beat Hungary in a close-fought men’s sabre team final Wednesday, claiming the gold medal for a third consecutive Olympics.

From left: Korea's Gu Bong-gil, Park Sang-won, Oh Sang-uk and Do Gyeong-dong pose with their medals after winning the men's sabre team competition at the 2024 Paris Olympics in Paris on Wednesday. [NEWS1]

The Korean men’s sabre team beat Hungary in a close-fought men’s sabre team final Wednesday, claiming the gold medal for a third consecutive Olympics.

It came down to the wire as two-time reigning Olympic champions Korea took on historically one of the most dominant nations in sabre fencing at the Grand Palais in Paris, Korea ultimately pipping Hungary to the post by four points for a final 45-41 score.

Korea’s Gu Bong-gil, Park Sang-won and Oh Sang-uk led confidently across the first five relays, slipping slightly as Hungary narrowed the gap in the sixth, before pulling ahead again to take the lead and eventually the win over the final three relays.

Hungary's Andras Szatmari, left, competes with Korea's Oh Sang-uk in the men's team sabre final at the Grand Palais in Paris on Wednesday. [AP/YONHAP]

Korea won five of the nine relays, with Hungary taking three and one tied.

The hero of the night was alternate Do Gyeong-dong, swapped in for Gu in the fifth relay. Do went on to best Hungary’s Krisztian Rabb 5-0 in the seventh relay, the only whiteout on the board for the match.

Rabb was joined on the Hungarian side of the piste by Aron Szilagyi and Andras Szatmari, the three Hungarians putting up a good fight en route to the silver and jumping to congratulate their opponents at the end of the match.

Hosts France took bronze, beating Iran with a decisive 45-25 in the bronze medal match.

Wednesday’s win makes Korea the second country ever to win three consecutive Olympic men’s team sabre titles, joining Hungary in the exclusive club. Gu was in the team for all three of those gold medal wins, having completed for Korea at the last four Olympics — men’s team sabre was not contested in Rio 2016, so the three titles come from London 2012, Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024.

Oh was also part of that 2020 gold medal team, and earlier this week won the men’s individual sabre title. That makes him for the first fencer to win both the individual and team sabre titles at the same Olympics since Russia’s Stanislav Pozdnyakov in 1996.

The two sabre golds remain Korea’s only fencing medals at the Paris Olympics so far, although the men’s epee, women’s sabre and men’s and women’s foil team events are still to come over the coming days.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]