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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, September 29, 2002

Chinese Top Male Foil Fencer Routs S. Korean Hero in Asiad Preliminary

Chinese top male foil fencer Wang Haibin, who is eyeing for the individual title at the Busan Asian Games, routed his arch rival South Korean Kim Young-ho, who becamea hero after taking the individual gold at the 2000 Olympic Games,5-1 in the preliminary round Sunday morning, but both eye-catching athletes advanced to the knock-out stage.


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Chinese top male foil fencer Wang Haibin, who is eyeing for the individual title at the Busan Asian Games, routed his arch rival South Korean Kim Young-ho, who became a hero after taking the individual gold at the 2000 Olympic Games,5-1 in the preliminary round Sunday morning, but both eye-catching athletes advanced to the knock-out stage.

"Kim looked more nervous than Wang in the round-robin Pool 4 clash, and both fencers did not give their best performances," Zhang Youngchun, a coach of the Chinese fencing team told Xinhua after the match.

Twenty fencers from 12 countries and regions registered to compete in the men's individual foil competitions which began at about 10:00 a.m. local time in Gangseo Stadium.

The preliminaries feature the 20 athletes in four round-robin groups. The winner of the game is the person who either collects five points in three minutes, or scores more points when the time expires.

Those top 16 fencers on the ranking list after their respective four group matches qualify for the knock-out stage which will kickoff at 3:00 p.m. local time.

"Both Wang and Kim lost twice in their group games this morning, and both were grouped in the second half win-or-die round, which means they might meet in the semi-final instead of the final," Zhang said.

In the knockout stage, the fencer scoring 15 points in nine minutes will win. If both fail to do so, the one who has more points will advance.

In the morning's preliminary round, China's second best foil fencer Wu Hanxiong, who grabbed a bronze in the individual foil competition at the Lisbon World Fencing Championships in August, beat all four opponents in his pool for the top spot of the ranking list. He has been grouped in the first half of the knock-out round against South Korean Kim Sang Hun and Japanese Okano Takashi, both are also very competitive.

"It is very hard to predict the results in the knock-out stage as accidents can not be predicted," Zhang said, adding that the two South Koreans and the two Chinese fencers are more hopeful to jump into the last four.

The final of the foil event, which is to begin at 8:00 p.m. local time, will produce the first gold medal of the Busan Asiad, coinciding with the holding of the opening ceremony.


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