Summary of the Fencing Asian Championships: The World Championships face greater challenges 2023-06-23 15:25:55.0 Source: Xinhuanet Author: Wang Hengzhi
The 2023 Asian Fencing Championships ended in Wuxi, Jiangsu on the 22nd. The Chinese team ranked third in the medal table with 2 golds, 3 silvers and 6 bronzes. Although the foil team won two gold medals in the individual competition, especially Mo Ziwei won the men’s flower individual championship in the Asian Championships after 11 years, the Chinese team did not win a gold medal in the team competition, which exposed the overall The grim reality of lagging behind the South Korean and Japanese teams in terms of strength. One month later, the Milan Fencing World Championships will be a huge test for the Chinese team.
At this Asian Championships, the Chinese foil team is the “face” of the national team. The champion and runner-up of the women’s individual competition in the last Asian Championships Shi Yue and Chen Qingyuan joined hands to advance to the semi-finals. In the end, Chen Qingyuan’s “silver” changed to “gold” and won her first individual championship in Wuxi. Male flower player Mo Ziwei won a long-awaited gold medal for the Chinese men’s foil team: the last time the Chinese team won the Asian Championships men’s flower individual championship was Lei Sheng in 2012, and now Lei Sheng is the national champion. team coach.
What is worrying is that the Chinese team’s traditional strength in women’s epee only earned two bronze medals this time. Lin Sheng won a bronze medal in the individual competition. The Chinese team lost to the Hong Kong team in the semi-finals of the team competition. The team was extremely disappointed with the result. In the view of Wang Haibin, chairman of the Chinese Fencing Association, although foil won two gold medals, “it doesn’t make sense to count this matter in terms of quantity.” He said: “Our goal is the Paris Olympics, so we prefer to be a team (to win the championship), because after all, it has always been a goal of the Chinese fencing team to bring individuals together, and this will also be a goal of our preparations for the Milan World Championships.”
“(Women’s epee) If you look at the Paris Olympics, everyone may be pessimistic now. It is indeed difficult and stressful. If the World Championships do not perform well, how can we go to the Paris Olympics, so we will seize the last 4 weeks. Go all out to prepare for the Milan World Championships.” Wang Haibin said.
In terms of saber, the Chinese team is more regretful. They reached the final of the women’s team competition and once led by a large score, but eventually lost to the South Korean team ranked third in the world; the men’s team defeated the Japanese team, which ranked higher than themselves in the world , harvested a bronze medal.
In this year’s Asian Championships, the Japanese team ranked first with 4 gold medals, and the South Korean team ranked second with 3 gold medals. Among them, the gold medals in the team competition were split in half by Japan and South Korea. Both teams showed strong overall strength. In the past, Asian fencing was dominated by China, Japan and South Korea, but now the Hong Kong team has grown into an opponent that cannot be underestimated by the Chinese team. The Hong Kong team won 1 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze medals in this Asian Championships. The world‘s number one Jiang Minxi.
The Milan World Championships will be held in July this year. Since the Olympic points of the World Championships are much higher than those of the World Cup and Asian Championships, the Chinese team will face more intense and cruel competition. Although the road ahead is difficult, one of the charms of fencing is to overcome difficulties and overcome the strong with the weak.