SINGAPORE- Olympic fencing champion Kim Ji Yeon suffered a surprise 14-15 defeat by China's Shen Chen in the women's individual sabre semi-finals at the Asian Fencing Championship at OCBC Arena Hall 1 on Thursday.
The Korean, ranked world No. 10, failed to take advantage of her early lead over world No. 17 Shen, who struck the final blow when the score was tied at 14-14, which left Kim kneeling in despair.
Shen went on to clinch the title, beating Japan's Chika Aoki 15- 7 in the final. Aoki overcame her compatriot Misaki Emura 15-10 in the other semi-final clash.
It is the first gold in the championships for Shen, who has two bronzes from her other outings in 2013 and 2014.
Singapore's trio of Sharmaine Cheung, Ywen Lau and Ann Lee were unable to progress past the round of 32 of the competition. Lau lost 9-15 to South Korea's Hwang Seo Na, Cheung 6-15 to China's Yin Haiyun and Lee 6-15 to Hong Kong's Jenny Ho.
In the men's individual epee competition, South Korea's Park Kyoung Doo was stunned by China's Jiao Yunlong 10-11 in the final.
Singapore's Lim Wei Wen and Samson Lee made it past the first round of preliminaries, but fell in the second. Lim lost 11-15 to South Korea's Park Kyoun Doo while Lee succumbed 9-10 to Vietnam's Truong Tran Nhat Minh.
The Republic's other men's epee fencers Justin Lim and Zachary Chen failed to advance past the first round.
