Kazakhstan's men's epee team has won the Asian Championships, the World Championships and the Asian Games within four months, a feat unprecedented in the history of world fencing, infohub.kz reports.
No men's epee team anywhere in the world had previously managed to win their continental championship, the world championship and the continental Games in a single year. The precedent is also unique for Kazakh sport: never before had any Kazakh team in any sport won all the main events on its international calendar in one season.
In world sport, achievements of this scale are given their own names. In tennis it is the "Grand Slam"; in football, the treble. Fencing has no official term for such a run, but by its logic Kazakhstan has done exactly that — completing its own "Grand Slam" in a single season.
In June, Kazakhstan's epee fencers became Asian champions in Delhi. A month later they won team gold at the World Championships in Hong Kong for the first time in history. The Asian Games in Nagoya were the final stop. In the decisive bout, Ruslan Kurbanov, Kirill Prokhodov, Vadim Sharlaimov and Yerlik Sertay faced South Korea. Trailing by nine points during the final, the Kazakhs staged an incredible comeback to snatch a 43:42 victory.
The gold returned to Kazakhstan after 24 years — the country's men's team had last won the team epee at the Asian Games in 2002 in Busan.
Mirbulat Abuov, president of the Kazakhstan Fencing Federation, believes the result already allows the current team to be spoken of as holding a special place in the country's sporting history.
"I think this team has already earned the right to be called legendary. We understand that expectations and responsibility grow with results. We see what we have achieved not as a final point, but as a new level that must now be maintained. The Olympic qualifying campaign lies ahead, and our next task is to confirm our high reputation over the long haul," he said.
The team's success was the result of systematic joint work by the Kazakhstan Fencing Federation and the Ministry of Tourism and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan. We managed to achieve a synergy of the athletes' bright talent, the coaches' highest professionalism, the Federation's tireless work and strong state support.