Jang Hyo-min of South Korea celebrates after securing a spot in the final of the men's épée team event at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, held at Aichi Sky Expo in Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, on Sunday. [Yonhap]
Jang Hyo-min of South Korea celebrates after securing a spot in the final of the men's épée team event at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, held at Aichi Sky Expo in Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, on Sunday. [Yonhap]

South Korea's men's épée fencing team defeated Japan in the semifinals of the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Sunday, advancing to the team final and securing at least a silver medal.

The squad — Park Sang-young, Jang Hyo-min (both of Ulsan Metropolitan City Hall), Nam Yeon-ho (Korea National Sport University) and Kwon O-min (Armed Forces Athletic Corps) — edged Japan 38-37 in the semifinal at Aichi Sky Expo in Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture.

South Korea had won three consecutive gold medals in the men's épée team event at the 2006 Doha, 2010 Guangzhou and 2014 Incheon Asian Games, but settled for bronze at both the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games and the 2022 Hangzhou Games (held in 2023). Sunday's result marks the team's return to the final after 12 years.

South Korea will face the winner of the Hong Kong-Kazakhstan semifinal in the gold-medal bout.

The men's épée team event uses a tournament bracket seeded according to the individual-event rankings of each country's competitors.

South Korea received a bye in the round of 32, then defeated Uzbekistan 45-33 in the round of 16 before beating China 45-36 in the quarterfinals.

In the semifinal, they faced Japan — a formidable opponent that had won the team event at the previous two Asian Games and claimed a team silver at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Trailing 7-10 after two rounds, South Korea turned the match around in the third when Park Sang-young overcame Matsumoto Ryu to take a 13-11 lead and seize the initiative.

Nam Yeon-ho, brought in for Kwon O-min in the fourth round, extended the lead to 20-16 against Yamada Masaru. Jang Hyo-min pushed it further to 25-17 against Matsumoto in the fifth.

The gap began to close in the sixth round, however, when Park faced Koki — the individual gold medalist at the Hangzhou Asian Games, the Paris Olympics and the current tournament — and the score tightened to 28-22. Japan continued to claw back in the seventh, with Nam allowing Matsumoto to cut the deficit to 31-27.

Park then conceded a tie at 34-34 against Yamada in the eighth round. In the ninth and final round, Jang fell behind immediately, giving up two consecutive points to Kano and putting South Korea in danger of a reversal.

Jang responded with two straight points of his own to level the score at the end of regulation, sending the bout to overtime. After one simultaneous touch, Jang landed a decisive hit with 37 seconds remaining to complete a dramatic comeback and seal South Korea's place in the final.


greg@heraldcorp.com