'Fencing's First Medal Challenge' Osanguk and Song Sera Smoothly Advance to Round of 16 [Paris Olympics]

Youngest Men's Sabre Park Sang-won Advances to Round of 16 After Defeating Medal Contender

Osangwook Oh of the men's sabre and Sera Song of the women's ?p?e, both aiming for their first medals in fencing, smoothly completed their first preliminary matches and advanced to the round of 16.

World No. 4 Osangwook Oh defeated Evan Giro of Niger, ranked 41st in the world, 15-8 in the men's individual sabre round of 32 held on the 27th (local time) at the Grand Palais in Paris, France, advancing to the round of 16.

Osangwook is celebrating after winning the men's sabre individual round of 32 match at the 2024 Paris Olympics fencing event held at the Grand Palais in Paris, France on the 27th (local time).
Photo by Yonhap News

Osangwook Oh entered the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as the world No. 1 and was considered a strong gold medal contender but unfortunately slipped out in the quarterfinals. He is aiming for two gold medals in both the individual and team events at this tournament. Last year, Oh won gold medals in both individual and team events at the Hangzhou Asian Games.

Sera Song, ranked 7th in the women's ?p?e, defeated Poland's Martina Swatowska 15-11 to advance to the round of 16. Swatowska is ranked 35th in the world, one tier below Song.

Park Sangwon, the youngest member of the sabre team, upset medal favorite Colin Heacock of the United States, ranked 6th, by defeating him 15-10 to reach the round of 16. Park is ranked 34th in the world, and the match was expected to be tough, but he caused an upset.

On the other hand, the eldest member of the sabre team, Bongil Koo (ranked 22nd), lost 8-15 to Tunisia's Fares Ferajini, ranked 14th, and was eliminated in the round of 32.

In the women's ?p?e team, Youngmi Kang and Hyein Lee also failed to advance to the round of 16. World No. 23 Youngmi Kang lost 13-14 in overtime to Estonia's Nelli Dipert, ranked 12th. World No. 20 Hyein Lee also narrowly lost 13-15 to China's Wu Sihan (ranked 22nd), this year's Asian Championships individual winner.