Quarterfinal of the 2023 Milan World Championships Men's Foil Team between Korea and Japan 日本.
On the Left - Korea
Korea has had a rough few seasons, the team could not send a full team to the Tokyo Olympics - only LEE Kwanghyun qualified through an individual spot.
In terms of Paris 2024 Olympic Qualifications the current trend, Team Japan will qualify with a Top 4 spot. Then Hong Kong will most likely take the first Asian Zonal spot. This gives Korea a good chance to qualify since they will only be competing against China, instead of against Japan and Hong Kong in the last Olympic Cycle. However, since China just won Silver at the World Championships, Korea has a rough road ahead of them.
During this season, Korea won Silver at the Asian Championships - losing to Japan in the final. 2018 Individual World Champs Bronze Medalist HEO Jun has expressed on Instagram that this will be his final World Championships - indicating that he plans to retire after Paris 2024.
On the Right - Japan
Since Russia has been banned from competing, Japan has been making the semifinals of events more often - often losing both bouts to come forth. Since the end of the previous season, 2022 Junior World Champion and 2022 Senior Belgrade Grand Prix Bronze Medalist, IIMURA Kazuki has replaced SAITO Toshiya for most team events. SUZUMURA Kenta is also now in the top 4 again.
After the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, French foil legend (including defeating Japan and winning Gold at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics) Erwan LE PECHOUX has become the Head Coach of the Men's Foil Programme for Team Japan. He coached IIMURA to win the Junior World Championships and Bronze at the 2022 Belgrade Grand Prix, and Kyosuke MATSUYAMA to win his first World Cup earlier this season in Bonn. Perhaps most impressively, Japan won its first Gold in the Men's Foil category earlier this season at the 2023 Cairo World Cup.
At Milan 2023, MATSUYAMA won a Bronze in the Men's Foil Individual Event.
Team KOREA:
HEO Jun
LEE Kwanghyun
HA Taegyu
IM Cheolwoo
Team JAPAN
SHIKINE Takahiro 敷根 崇裕
MATSUYAMA Kyosuke 松山 恭助
IIMURA Kazuki 太田 雄貴 2.0
SUZUMURA Kenta 鈴村健太 (R)
0:00 Introduction
0:14 LEE v SHIKINE
5:04 HA v IIMURA
12:51 HEO v MATSUYAMA
19:12 LEE v IIMURA
25:17 HEO v SHIKINE
32:40 HA v MATSUYAMA
41:07 HEO v IIMURA
44:27 LEE v MATSUYAMA
56:24 HA v SHIKINE