Today’s epic hit comes from the much-anticipated deathmatch between two team mates, World #1 and World #2, Gu Bongil and Kim Junghwan. The winning point from Gu in the 2014 Asian Games final is one of the most beautiful fencing actions I’ve ever seen. It’s the last word on attack-on-prep in the 4m. Here it is from a bootleg HD version of the official coverage (which unfortunately only covers the last 3 points):
[gfycat data_id="FloweryEmbellishedAfricanmolesnake" data_autoplay=true]It also gave us what must be just about the best sabre photo of all time, captured by David Sim. Incredible.
Anyway, after a month of searching, we’ve finally got video (albeit unofficial) of the whole match. Took a lot of wrangling of the Korean fencing grapevine, but we got there in the end. Unofficial video of the full match is available on Youtube, thanks to Lee KyuJun:
Pretty full-on match. Rowdy crowd is rowdy. Much excitement! Kim is crazy tense, and Gu knows exactly how to exploit that, as that last attack makes only too clear. My only question is why Gu gets so many video appeals: I counted at least 4 unsustained. If anyone can enlighten me, please do.
Thanks. ^^
Thank you for that photo, it’s superb!
I’m pretty sure that isn’t an Attack on Prep.
Kim is trying to make Gu miss and reply immediately, he just doesn’t get far enough out the way. Looks to me like the doubt is whether Gu’s first misses, or whether its considered one action.
The way the referee phrases it in the full video supports this. There’s no indication of signalling that Kim was preparing, he just gives it as straight attack for Gu.
Haha I suspected someone would say that.
Kim starts fast, then hesitates. Gu’s wired to recognise that hesitation and launch the short form of his attack, rather than the slower full length variant. If you play it at half speed, you can see the decision point quite clearly.
There’s no way he missed that initial. If that’s what Kim was aiming for he was waaaaaaaay more tense than I gave him credit for.