Korea finish fencing with a silver in women's sabre

Korea settled for silver in the women’s sabre team event at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Saturday evening, falling victim to a last-gasp Ukraine comeback in the gold medal match.

Korea's Jeon Ha-young, left, competes with Ukraine's Olga Kharlan in the women's team sabre final at the Grand Palais in Paris on Saturday. [AP/YONHAP]

Korea settled for silver in the women’s sabre team event at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Saturday evening, falling victim to a last-gasp Ukraine comeback in the gold medal match.

Korea’s Jeon Eun-hye, Jeon Ha-young and Choi Se-bin took the lead in the second relay at the Grand Palais in Paris, Jeon Ha-young putting her team 10-8 after slipping slightly behind in the first relay at the hands of Ukrainian juggernaut Olga Kharlan.

Ukraine — Kharlan, Yuliia Bakastova and Alina Komashcuk — continued to trail for the following six relays, although the gap remained slim throughout.

That left Jeon Ha-young needing to pick up five points in the final relay while Ukraine needed eight, but at the other end of the piste was two-time Olympic gold medalist — including in Paris — Kharlan.

Unfortunately for Korea, six-time world champion Kharlan proved unstoppable in the final relay, reversing the scorecard at the very last second to secure a 45-42 victory for Ukraine and send Korea to the silver medal step.

Silver is still an upgrade for Korea on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where the women’s sabre team walked away with bronze. Saturday’s silver is Korea’s only women’s medal from the 2024 Paris Olympics, one fewer than Tokyo, where the women’s epee team took silver.

Korea leaves Paris with three fencing medals and a lot of near misses. On the men’s side, Korea took gold in both the individual and team sabre, but also missed out on an epee medal despite having medaled in the discipline in Tokyo.

Fencing will continue on Sunday with the men’s team foil, but Korea will not be competing.

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