(LEAD) (Asiad) S. Korea wins silver in women's foil team fencing at Asian Games

(ATTN: ADDS more info, comments in paras 5-7, 10-13, new photo)
By Kim Boram

TOKONAME, Japan, Sept. 26 (Yonhap) -- South Korea won the silver medal in the women's foil team fencing at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Saturday, losing to host Japan by one point.

The quartet of Park Ji-hee, Mo Byeol-i, Sim So-eun and Lee Se-joo lost to Japan 29-28 in the event's final at Aichi Sky Expo in Tokoname, some 35 kilometers south of the main host city of Nagoya, Japan.

The team sought its first gold medal in the women's team foil event since 2014 but fell one step short.

The bronze medals went to China and Hong Kong.

Team fencing events are contested in nine head-to-head bouts. Each bout is three minutes long, but it ends when one team's score reaches a multiple of five.

A team scoring 45 points first or having more points than the opponent at the end of the ninth bout wins the event.

In foil, fencers use a light thrusting weapon, targeting the torso, but not the arms or head.

After losing the first four bouts, South Korea took the lead in the fifth bout behind Park, the silver medalist in the individual epee event.

However, in the ninth and final bout, Park gave up seven straight points, surrendering the lead as Japan won 29-28.

After the match, Park broke out in tears, saying she has still much to learn.

"I think we should've done better in the middle," she said. "I still have a long way to go, but thanks to my teammates' help, I've made it this far."

She said the one-point loss to Japan, a world-class team that won bronze at the Paris Olympics, gave the South Korean team hope for taking the next step.

"In previous meetings with Japan, we lost by a large margin, but today, we did well," Park said. "It's very hard to get an Olympic ticket, but we will work hard to achieve it."