The Republic of Korea won the men’s team sabre final at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 after individual Olympic champion Oh Sanguk held off a valiant but insufficient late-match comeback from Hungary’s Aron Szilagyi at the Grand Palais on Wednesday 31 July.
The match lived up to its billing as a clash of fencing titans, entertaining an enthusiastic crowd throughout nine periods of intense, world-class sabre dueling.
Reflecting on his team’s victory, Oh Sanguk said: “I was so impressed that we won gold. I was so happy that I had tears in my eyes. I was so overwhelmed by the emotions.”
The Republic of Korea led much of the match thanks to a strong start from Park Sangwon, who defeated Aron Szilagyi 5-4 in the first period. Oh Sanguk then grew their lead by an additional touch, after dismissing Krisztian Rabb 4-5 in the second period.
However, it was Gu Bongil that truly cemented the Republic of Korea’s early lead.
Demonstrating his superior technique and lightning fast reflexes, he notched an extra two touches over Andras Szatmari in the third period.
The score would remain essentially level for the next two periods, until Szatmari displayed some brilliance of his own, dissecting Oh Sanguk’s defenses to bring the Hungarian team within one touch of their gold medal adversaries.
Unfortunately, all of his hard work would be undone when Krisztian Rabb took a 5-0 loss to Do Gyeongdong in the seventh period.
Try as they might, the Hungarians could never recover from the deficit and had to settle for the silver medal by the end of the match.
“I’m very happy but of course a little disappointed, because we felt like we had a chance to win the final,” said Aron Szilagyi. “We were close but in the last three matches the Korean team made it clear that they are the best in the world. Congratulations to them and their coaches. They did an amazing job.”
France joined the Republic of Korea and Hungary on the podium, after defeating the Islamic Republic of Iran 45-25 in the bronze medal match.
It was a dominant showing from the host team of Bolade Apithy, Sebastien Patrice, Maxime Pianfetti and Jean-Philippe Patrice, who had the crowd singing ‘La Marseillaise’ and cheering every touch like it was the last one required for the bronze.
“You can’t finish any better than that, it’s a dream from start to finish,” said Bolade Apithy, who won his first Olympic medal 12 years after making his debut at London 2012.
He plans to retire after Paris 2024, but he’ll need to come down from cloud nine first.
Fencing: Men’s team sabre podium
Gold: Republic of Korea
Silver: Hungary
Bronze: France
