South Korea tops Asian junior fencing c'ships

JAKARTA (JP): South Korea won both gold medals on the closing day of the Asian Junior and Cadet Fencing Championships here yesterday to emerge as the tournament's overall champion.

The gold medals were won by Kim Mi-jung in the girls' individual epee and Ko Yung-tae in the boys' individual saber. This took South Korea's medals tally to four golds, three silvers and four bronzes.

Kuwait finished the day empty handed, but came second overall behind the Koreans. China was third with one gold, two silvers and three bronzes.

Both Kim and Ko, fencing in the Junior, under 20 years, category, had a tough time against their opponents to win gold.

Kim trailed 2-4 behind Saori Nimi of Japan in the first three minutes. The South Korean was then involved in a very close second-period battle which took the score to 8-7. In the third period Kim easily found her opponent's weaknesses to end the duel 15-8.

Ko, who has won six gold medals in various international events, fenced a close duel with her Iranian opponent, Fahri Payman.

Payman started aggressively which resulted in rapidly changing scores. But his aggressiveness lessened his accuracy which enabled Ko to exploit his open defense.

Ko frequently hit Payman on the chest. The Iranian's answer was to strike Ko's left hand.

Ko broke the 10-10 deadlock in the last three minutes with a series of unanticipated blitzes to win the contest 15-10.

The silver from Payman put Iran into fourth on the standings, close behind China. The two teams collected one gold each, but China had more silvers and bronzes.

The 39 member Indonesian team, which included several 1995 Southeast Asian Games medalists, performed poorly only winning one bronze thanks to Yulia Ekawati in the under-17 girls' individual foil competition. (arf)

Medal Tally

G S B South Korea 4 3 4 Kuwait 2 - - China 1 2 3 Iran 1 1 1 Kazakhstan 1 - 2 Saudi Arabia 1 - 1 Japan - 3 4 Thailand - 1 2 Indonesia - - 1 Hong Kong - - 1 Chinese Taipei - - 1