South Korea defend Olympic men's sabre team title

Team South Korea greet team Italy after the fencing men's sabre team gold medal match between South Korea and Italy at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, July 28, 2021. (Xinhua/Xu Zijian)

TOKYO, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Defending champions South Korea retained their men's sabre team crown after beating Italy in the final at the Tokyo Games on Wednesday.

The quartet of Kim Jung-hwan, Oh Sang-uk, Gu Bon-gil and Kim Jun-ho dominated Italy 45-26, becoming the first team to win back-to-back gold medals in the men's sabre team since France in 2004-2008.

"When we won in London, we didn't think that we were going to have another chance to be in the Olympics again. It has been nine years and we have really strong juniors coming into the team. We trained them and we got gold," Kim Jung-hwan said.

Kim Jung-hwan became the first fencer representing an Asian team to win four Olympic medals in fencing.

"We split a day in to four and we basically sacrifice our freedom and put everything into the training and that is the reason we could make the gold."

World No.1 Oh Sang-uk went up 5-0 against Aldo Montano in the second bout before Kim Jung-hwan beat Montano 5-1 to extend the lead to 20-7 after the fifth bout.

"It's extremely difficulty that I made it to this Olympic Games 2020. So I'm happy to have finished with a silver medal," said the 42-year-old Montano.

Hungary won the bronze after beating Germany 45-40.

"We reached our target to receive an Olympic medal together. We are not disappointed at all. We are proud with this bronze medal," said Aron Szilagyi, who captured his 3rd Olympic men's sabre individual crown in Tokyo.