Olympic
Japan's Matsuyama and Kazakhstan's Bakaldina win gold on Day 3 in Men's Foil and Women's Epee
Indian fencers Lohan and Sachin show strong performance and great promise on home pistes
TDJ News Service
21 Jun, 2026
New Delhi: The third day of the 26th Asian Senior Fencing Championships at Bharat Mandapam witnessed high-intensity action as the individual competitions concluded with Men's Foil and Women's Épée events. With crucial qualification points for the Asian Games and the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics at stake, Indian fencers produced encouraging performances, led by Prachi Lohan and Sachin Sachin, while Asia's leading fencing nations continued their battle for supremacy before the tournament shifts to team events.
The day became a graveyard for tournament favorites. In Men's Foil, Hong Kong’s reigning back-to-back Olympic gold medalist Cheung Ka Long was shocked in the quarterfinals by South Korea's Im Cheolwoo, leaving Cheung in 6th place overall. Defending Asian champion Choi Chun Yin Ryan of Hong Kong was also knocked out in the quarterfinals, falling to Japan’s Kyosuke Matsuyama to finish 5th. In the Women’s Épée bracket, South Korea's defending champion Song Se-ra was stopped in the semifinals by Kazakhstan’s Irina Bakaldina, forcing her to settle for bronze.
The finals delivered incredible intensity. In Men's Foil, Japan showed its strength as teammates Kyosuke Matsuyama and Kazuki Iimura fought in an all-Japanese final. Matsuyama won the match to take Gold, leaving Iimura with Silver, while South Korea's Im Cheolwoo and Jeonghyun Youn shared the bronze. In Women's Épée, Irina Bakaldina clinched a historic first-ever individual women's épée gold for Kazakhstan by defeating Hong Kong's Kaylin Sin Yan Hsieh in a fierce final. Hsieh took home the silver, while Tamaki Terayama of Japan and South Korea's Song Se-ra shared the bronze.
With these results, Japan holds the championship lead with 3 gold medals from the first four events. These final individual standings now set up the brackets and psychological momentum for the highly anticipated team events starting tomorrow.
Tags : Kyosuke Matsuyama, Fencing, Japan, Kazakhstan, Bakaldina
