‘Olympic champions’ Oh Sang-wook (26, Daejeon Metropolitan Government), Koo Bon-gil (34), Kim Jung-hwan (40, Korea Sports Promotion Organization) and Kim Jun-ho (29, Hwaseong City Hall) retained their top spot at the Asian Games, giving a green light to the next Olympics in less than a year.
The quartet, who combined for South Korea’s gold medal in the team event at the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games on Aug. 28, have been leading the Korean men’s sabre team at international events since 2016.
After going through a generational transition when Won Woo-young, Oh Eun-seok, Goo Bon-gil, and Kim Jung-hwan hung up their taekwondo markers after winning team gold at the 2012 London Olympics, the Korean men’s sabre has since become a world-class force thanks to the development of Oh Sang-wook and Kim Jun-ho.
Veterans Koo Bon-gil and Kim Jung-hwan, who have been playing for the national team for more than a decade, have been joined by the two “big brothers” who have the physical condition and fundamentals to become a “one-man team” that is unrivaled by any other country in the world.
Together, they won Korea’s first ever men’s sabre team title at the 2017 World Championships and went on to win four consecutive titles until last year. All four have competed since, with the exception of Kim Jung-hwan, who took a break from the sport in 2019.
At the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta-Palembang and the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo, they raised the Korean flag atop the podium in the men’s sabre team event, leading the way for fencing’s filial piety in international competition.
Known as the ‘Avengers’ (fencing + Avengers), all four fencers have a clean appearance and articulate speech, and after winning the Olympic gold medal, they became the first choice for broadcasting and appeared on entertainment programs.
In the meantime, they have been performing well in various international competitions and have been ranked No. 1 in the world in the team event, and in June this year, 바카라사이트 they won their third consecutive team title at the Asian Championships, revealing their prospects for the Asian Games.
There was a brief crisis at the World Championships in July when Kim was forced to withdraw due to a hamstring injury.
They reached the final but lost to Hungary, led by three-time Olympic individual champion Aaron Csilagyi, to end their streak of five consecutive team titles.
The Asian Games, however, was a different story with the ‘returning eldest brother’.
Koo Bon-gil and Oh Sang-wook set up their second consecutive Asian Games individual final matchup, and together they successfully defended their title in the team event, proving that they are unbeatable in Asia.
With the Tokyo Olympics and the Asian Games postponed for a year due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the next Olympics are now just 10 months away.
Kim, who has said that every time he competes since he entered his late 30s, “it might be the last time,” has vowed to compete in next year’s Olympics, and we are already looking forward to seeing his “golden breath” as a member of The Avengers.
“There was a lot of pressure on me because I was expected to win a gold medal,” said Kim, who has been acting as a de facto ‘playing coach’ for the men’s sabre team, which currently has no dedicated coach. “We were worried that we would be criticized if we didn’t win the gold medal because we thought it was the main event, but we were more prepared than we thought,” he said, adding, “Each of us did a great job.
“I’m happy that we were able to reward the expectations with a gold medal,” he said, emphasizing, “We will continue to improve as we build up to the Paris Olympics.” 카지노사이트