China Seizes Men's Foil Team Title at Busan Asiad

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, October 03, 2002

China Seizes Men's Foil Team Title at Busan Asiad

China beat South Korea to take the men's foil team title at the 14th Asian Games on Wednesday. China won the final 45-38 for the gold medal.

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China took the men's foil team title at the Busan Asiad on Wednesday evening, beating host South Korea 45-38 in the toughest-ever and luster final duel.

Choi Byung-chul, a young South Korean fencer without any titles or fame, almost made an overturn for his team when he stepped on the piste as the last fighter to face Chinese veteran Wang Haibin,the individual gold medalist of both 1998 Bangkok and 2002 Busan Asiads.

Choi, who was no doubt the most shining star this evening, collected 12 points in his duel with Wang, cutting his team's deficit of 26-40 to 38-43, even raising the hope for South Korea to come back for the title. But the experienced Wang took the chances for timing counterattacks and sealed the victory only one minute to go.

Wang said after the duel that he had never met Choi before and Choi is a very quick-pace and active fencer.

"I was a bit conservative when we were in the 40-26 lead. And Choi launched waves of flash attacks which I failed to get used toin short time." Wang added.

"But I was confident to win the game as our advantage was too big," he said.

Screamings and shoutings engulfed the whole fencing stadium which can accommodate thousands of spectators when Choi scored eight points in a row, but the point gap was too big to be removed.

Wu Hanxiong, China's individual bronze medalist of both Lisbon World Fencing Championship and Busan Asian Games, spearheaded the Chinese team and earned the flying start with 5-3 lead in the first set against Kim Sang-hun, the individual silver medalist of the Busan Asiad who beat Wu in that semifinal.

Wang Haibin came secondly with a brilliant 5-0 against his archrival Kim Young-ho, who clinched the individual gold at Sydney Olympics but lost to Wang both in Bangkok and Busan, in the second set to give China 8-3 lead over South Korea.

Zhang Jie, who did not attend the men's foil individual competition at Busan Asiad, beat South Korean Lee Kwan-hang 5-2 in the third set to extend the Chinese lead to 15-5.

In the fourth set, Kim Young-ho, who lost to Wu Hanxiong in the individual playoff for the bronze, retaliated with a 6-5 to cut the deficit to nine points at 20-11.

However, Zhang Jie widened the gap again in the fifth set when he beat Kim Sang-hun 5-2 to give China 25-13 in the lead.

Then Wang Haibin ended the sixth set fight only in 20 seconds with a brillant 5-1 against Lee Kwan-hang to gift China 30-14 in the lead.

Kim Young-ho, who had announced his retirement after the Busan Asiad, fought fiercely in the seventh set which was certainly his last chance for international games, and collected seven points against Zhang Jie's five.

Zhang said after the match that Kim is better than him in skill and experience. "And Kim played very actively in the duel, which is quite different from his previous fighting style."

Wang Haibin said, "Kim Young-ho played quite well today, especially in his duels with Wu Hanxiong and Zhang Jie. But Kim Sang-hun did not show his best form and was replaced by Choi later."

In the eighth set, Wu Hanxiong tied Lee Kwan-hang 5-5 to give China a 40-26 lead when the last two fighters were set to come.

Chinese coach Guo Ying said, "We have been fully prepared for the duel, and we deserve the win."

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