South Korea's women's foil team claims silver after narrow loss to Japan

South Korea's women's foil fencing team won a silver medal in the team event at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.

The team — Park Ji-hee and Shim So-eun of the Seoul Metropolitan Government, Mo Byeol-i of Incheon's Yeongjong-gu District Office and Lee Se-ju of the North Chungcheong Province office — fell 28-29 to Japan in the team final Saturday at Aichi Sky Expo in Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture.

South Korea had dominated the women's foil team event at the Asian Games, winning five consecutive gold medals from the 1998 Bangkok Games through the 2014 Incheon Games. The team slipped to bronze at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games but bounced back with a silver at the 2022 Hangzhou Games, held in 2023.

Japan, whose squad included three fencers ranked in the world's top 10, was a formidable opponent in the final, yet South Korea pushed them to the wire.

Park, the opening bout fencer, fell behind 3-5 against Tsuji Sumire, but Mo pulled South Korea back to within 5-6 in the second round against Ueno. Shim then engineered a 9-6 reversal against Azuma Sera in the third round, only to concede several consecutive touches and level the score at 9-9.

In the fourth round, Mo clashed with Tsuji in a back-and-forth exchange and gave up the lead at 11-13, but Park turned it around in the fifth round against Azuma, going ahead 16-14. Shim dominated the sixth round against Ueno with sharp attacking and defensive focus, extending the lead to 19-14.

Mo stretched the advantage to 21-14 at one point in the seventh round against Azuma before a fierce Japanese comeback narrowed the gap to 22-19. Shim then held off Tsuji in the eighth round to push the lead back out to 26-22.

The ninth and final round brought a rematch between the two teams' aces — Park against Ueno, a repeat of their individual final — and Park was looking for revenge. Instead, South Korea's lead of 27-22 crumbled under seven consecutive touches for Japan. Park scored one point with 16 seconds remaining to make it 28-29, but there was not enough time to complete the comeback.