Kazakhstani épée fencer Irina Bakaldina won the gold medal at the Asian Championships held in India. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
The 28-year-old Bakaldina, seeded second in New Delhi, defeated Darya Samodelkina 15:9 in the round of 32. Samodelkina is the younger sister of figure skater Sofya Samodelkina, who also competes for Kazakhstan. In the round of 16, Irina beat Ka Mong Chu of Hong Kong by the same score. In the quarterfinals, the Kazakh fencer defeated Chinese Jingwen Yang 15:12, and in the semifinals, she routed Sera Son of South Korea 15:7.
In the final, Bakaldina overcame top seed Kaylin Hsieh of Hong Kong 15:12, bringing Kazakhstan its first gold of the 2026 continental championship.
Samodelkina finished 30th out of 67 starters, while another Kazakh épée fencer, Sofia Nikolaychuk, who reached the round of 16, placed 13th.
Less successful were the Kazakh foil fencers. The best of them, Timofey Semyonov, placed 33rd, Galim Nurumov 36th, and Tamirlan Kaliyev 46th.
The Asian Fencing Championships were first held in 1973. There was a long break until 1989, and since 2007 the tournament has been held annually. The 29th continental championship in India features 26 Kazakh athletes in all weapons.
Earlier, the leader of the Kazakh épée fencers, Ruslan Kurbanov, shared bronze with Japan's Koki Kano, a two-time Olympic champion and two-time world champion.
Tomorrow, team competitions will begin at the Asian Championships in India.