ASIA

Asian Championships, 13-18 April, Wuxi (CHN)

Ten additional places for the Olympics were available through this event, one each for Men’s Epee, Women’s Epee, Men’s Foil and Women’s Sabre plus three for Women’s Foil and three for Men’s Sabre. Vietnam were the big winners picking up three qualification spots each.

Park Kyoungdoo (KOR) won his second gold medal in men’s individual épée, following up on his success in 2009. The men’s individual foil winner was Cheung Ka Long (HKG), and Kim Junghwan (KOR) won his third gold medal in men’s individual sabre. Japan became only the fourth country since 2003 to win the men’s team épée, Korea won its third men’s team foil and the same country has also now won the last four editions of men’s team sabre.

Sun Yujie (CHN) won the women’s individual épée, completing her medal set in this event. Nam Hyunhee (KOR) has now won six of the last eight gold medals in women’s individual foil. Hwang Seona (KOR), at 26 years and 211 days, became the second-oldest winner in women’s individual sabre (since 2003). Korea became the second team to win the women’s team epée in successive editions, China dethroned Korea in women’s team foil and also claimed gold in the women’s team sabre.

Qualifiers: Men’s epee: Abdulaziz Alshatti (FIE) Women’s epee: Thi Nhu Hoa Nguyen (VIE) Men’s foil: Ka Long Cheung (HKG) Women’s foil: Po Heung Lin (HKG), Shiho Nishioka (JPN) and Yuan Ping (NZL) Men’s sabre: Ilya Mokretcov (KAZ), Kenta Tokunan (JPN), Thanh An Vu (VIE) Women’s sabre: Thi Le Dung Nguyen (VIE)