Final of the 2024 Kuwait Asian Championships Men's Sabre Team event between Korea and Iran | Men's Sabre Fencing 오상욱 2024 아시아선수권 남자 사브르 펜싱
The undisputed two strongest men's sabre teams in Asia, both Korea and Iran have already qualified for the Paris Olympic Games - Korea as one of the top 4 teams in international rankings, and Iran as the highest ranked Asian team outside of the top 4.
On the Right - Korea
Korea had won every World Championships and the Olympics from 2017 to 2022, beating Hungary in the finals of the 2022 Cairo World Championships, 2019 Budapest World Championships and 2017 Leipzig World Championships. At the Milan 2023 World Championships, Korea lost to Hungary in the finals.
In January 2024, KIM Junho 김준호 retired. OH Sanguk 오상욱 had also been injured and missed multiple competitions. KIM Junghwan has also lost form and was not reselected for team competitions. Surprisingly, despite this, Korea had managed to win two competitions with almost a completely new team with DO Gyeongdong and (reigning Universade Champion) and PARK Sangwon fencing instead. GU Bongil 구본길 continues to fence on the 7th leg, and HA Hansol 하한솔 has been acting as substitute once in a while.
Since Korea apparently takes the highest ranked fencers to the Asian Championships, HA Hansol was selected over DO Gyeongdong, despite DO being selected for the Paris Olympics Team
On the Left - Iran
Iran has medalled before at team competitions, losing to Korea in the Final of the 2019 Luxardo World Cup and the 2022 Algiers World Cup. Ali PAKDAMAN (2023 Individual Asian Champion) won an individual silver at the 2024 Tbilisi World Cup.
Team Korea
OH Sanguk 오상욱
PARK Sangwon
GU Bongil 구본길
HA Hansol 하한솔 (S)
Team Iran
RAHBARI Mohammad
BAHER ARASBARAN Farzad
PAKDAMAN Ali
FOTOUHI Mohammad (S)
0:00 Intro
0:31 (1/9) RAHBARI v PARK
4:12 (2/9) BAHER v OH
8:07 (3/9) PAKDAMAN v GU
11:56 (4/9) BAHER v PARK
14:38 (5/9) RAHBARI v GU
19:17 (6/9) PAKDAMAN v OH
21:54 (7/9) BAHER v GU
24:13 (8/9) PAKDAMAN v PARK
27:49 (9/9) RAHBARI v OH