Nagoya:Tokoname: South Korea squandered a substantial lead and settled for silver in the men's epee fencing team event at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Sunday. The competition took place at Aichi Sky Expo, south of Nagoya, the main host city.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the South Korean team, comprising Park Sang-young, Jang Hyo-min, Nam Yeon-ho, and substitute Kwon O-min, narrowly lost to Kazakhstan's team of Kirill Prokhodov, Ruslan Kurbanov, Vadim Sharlaimov, and Yerlik Sertay with a score of 43-42.

The South Korean fencers, who did not reach medal contention in the individual events, managed to secure South Korea's 12th consecutive men's epee team medal. Team fencing events are structured into nine head-to-head bouts, each lasting three minutes or until a team's score reaches a multiple of five. Victory is secured by scoring 45 points first or by having the higher score at the end of the ninth bout.

The match began with Park and Prokhodov each scoring three points. Jang then outscored Kurbanov 3-1, giving South Korea a 6-4 lead. Nam extended this advantage to 12-9 after winning his bout against Sharlaimov, and Park's dominance over Sertay widened the gap to 19-10.

Kazakhstan mounted a comeback, winning subsequent bouts to close the gap to 30-24. Despite Nam's 5-5 draw with Kurbanov, which kept South Korea ahead at 35-29, Sharlaimov's 5-1 victory over Park brought Kazakhstan within two points at 36-34.

The final bout between Jang and Prokhodov was intensely contested, with both fencers trading points until the score was tied at 42-42, leading to a sudden-death extra session. Seven seconds in, Prokhodov scored the decisive point, clinching the gold for Kazakhstan.