Kazakhstan's leading épée fencer Ruslan Kurbanov won a bronze medal at the Asian Fencing Championships in New Delhi. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
On the way to the semifinals, the 34-year-old Kurbanov achieved four victories. In the 1/32 finals, the Kazakh defeated Iranian Ali Namazi 15:9. He then beat Singapore's Zhang Tong Sito 15:12 and Ilim Bakytbekuulu of Kyrgyzstan 15:8. In the quarterfinals, the two-time world championship bronze medalist defeated Yu Han Xue of China 15:6. Only in the semifinals did he stumble against Rang Li of Chinese Taipei, losing 12:15.
Fifth place at the continental championship was taken by Kurbanov's teammate Kirill Prokhodov, who lost in the quarterfinals to Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion Masaru Yamada of Japan 9:15.
In the 1/16 finals, the tournament bracket pitted Prokhodov against another Kazakh, Nikita Zhulinsky. Losing a close bout 13:15, Zhulinsky finished 24th. Yertay Serlik ended the individual tournament in ninth place, losing in the 1/8 finals to two-time Olympic and world champion Koki Kano of Japan 9:15.
On June 23, Kazakh épée fencers will compete for medals in the team tournament.
Today, sabre fencer Anastasiya Gulik took a high fifth place, reaching the quarterfinals where she lost to Japan's Yui Sano 7:15. Aigerim Saribay finished 16th, and Kaisha Zhanybek 29th.
Earlier, our foil fencers and sabre fencers began their competition at the Asian Championships.
The Asian Fencing Championships were first held in 1973. There was a long break until 1989. Since 2007, the tournament has been held annually. The 29th continental championship in India features 26 Kazakh athletes competing in all weapons.