Kazakhstan's women's epee fencing team has reached the podium at the Asian Games for the first time in history, at the 2026 edition being held in Japan. The Kazakh athletes claimed bronze in the team event, infohub.kz reports.
Thanks to their high ranking, the national team advanced directly to the quarterfinals, where they defeated Hong Kong 45:35.
In the semifinals, Kazakhstan lost to China 21:45. Under the competition rules, no third-place bout is held, so Irina Bakaldina, Vladislava Andreeva, Sofia Nikolaichuk and Darya Samodelkina were awarded bronze medals, as were the representatives of Singapore.
This is the first medal in Kazakhstan's history at the Asian Games in women's epee fencing. In the men's event in the same weapon a day earlier, Kirill Prokhodov took silver. Before that, Artyom Sarkisyan won bronze in the individual sabre tournament.
Men's team foil competitions were also held on Friday. Kazakhstan first beat Qatar 45:42, but then lost to Japan 29:45 in the quarterfinals. Galym Nurumov, Timofey Semyonov and Tamirlan Kaliyev represented the country.