Aussie Teams wrap up a successful Asian Champs
Australia has produced mixed results in the Teams competitions at the 2026 Senior Asian Championships in India, highlighted by an eighth place overall in the Men’s Sabre competition.
Across the final three days of competition we were represented by five Australian teams in action – covering Men’s Epee, Foil and Sabre and Women’s Epee and Foil.
Men’s Sabre
The team action kicked off on Monday as the Men’s Sabre team led the way with Alex Brown, Colin Chen, Arnav Raja and Yoongi Shim making up the team.
Faced with a tricky opening Table of 16 clash with host nation India, the Aussies were trailing all the way through until the end of the fifth period, at which point the score was 17-25.
But a 13-3 sixth period with Raja on the piste turned things around (30-28) and we maintained a small lead throughout the remainder of the match – Shim going 5-4 (35-32), Brown scoring 5-3 (40-35) and Raja bringing it home to win 45-42.
From there the team took on Japan in the round of eight, going down 45-18, before then taking on Saudi Arabia in the seventh and eighth place playoff, which we lost 45-11 – the results landing us in eighth overall.
Women’s Foil
Our Women’s Foil team were also in action on Monday, with the team made up of Sophia Glasson, Rianne Leung, Kirsty Xue and Mayuri Muralidharan.
Taking on the Philippines in our opening table of 16 clash, the opening match was a topsy-turvey affair after our opponents raced to a 10-2 lead at the end of the second period. Having narrowed the gap back to two with an impressive 9-3 fence to Leung, it blew back out to eight before a 9-0 sixth period from Glasson had us leading 26-25 with three periods remaining. Unfortunately the Philippine fencers were just too strong and despite our best efforts we ended up going down 45-39.
The result put us into the secondary table where we battled for the nine-12 finishing spots. Our team responded well to the disappointment earlier by smashing Nepal 45-11 and then overcoming India 45-35 to finish the tournament in ninth overall.
Men’s Epee
Our Men’s Epee team took to the piste on Tuesday and the team of Jacob Crook, Lachlan Crook, Isaac Hayes and Darcy McClelland finished the competition of 19 teams in 14th place.
Our opening fixture was against Saudi Arabia and things were progressing fairly conservatively through five periods with the score 21-18 to the Saudi’s – the three point touch lead the biggest margin throughout.
But unfortunately we were unable to maintain the pressure in this battle and the lead blew out – a lead we were unable to reel back in going down 45-37.
From there we were thrust into the table for places 13-16, and an initial match against Turkmenistan. In the match we won seven of the nine period and tied the other two, to comfortable take the win 45-23.
In our 13th / 14th battle against host nation India, we were neck and neck through six periods before the Indians pulled away over the last three legs. In the end the 45-35 loss had us finishing 14th overall.
Men’s Foil
The final day of competition saw our Men’s Foil team in action consisting of Hugo Bosnic, Joseph Glasson, Aron Thian and Sam Mooney Grand.
In our opening bout in the table of 16 we were drawn to take on Singapore, and after an 8-1 third period headed by Bosnic, we took a 15-11 match lead. This increased to 20-13 thanks to a clinical fence from Thian. It was downhill from there as we lost each of our next five periods to go down 45-37 overall.
The draw then took us to the battle for the nine-16 spots, and we came up against the Philippines first up who had our measure as they went on to win 45-35.
It was somewhat uphill from there in our next two matches – as we took on and defeated Thailand 45-36 and followed that up with a crushing win against Bahrain 45-20.
The result placed us 13th overall in the 17-team competition.
Women’s Epee
Our other team that competed on the final day of competition was our Women’s Epee team made up of Genevieve Gilarski, Ashley Mae Harrison, Amelie Yee and Imogen Rice.
Despite fighting hard until the very end, we were no match for Uzbekistan in our table of 16 match falling 45-21.
But our fortunes then turned as we looked to fence in the secondary tableau – beating Vietnam 45-34 and moving onto another Philippines encounter. With the match against the Philippines tied at 39-39 heading into the final period and having priority, Yee held her nerve to see us take the win without a touch being registered.
In our final match we went down 45-35 to India to finish the tournament in 10th out of a field of 15.
Tour Head Coaches Aleksandra Shelton, Oleksii Tyshko and Rob di Pasquale were all happy with the experience in India, and Team Manager Ursula Menz said that it was a great week at the tournament for the travelling party.
“There is no question that this was another successful major tournament for the Australian Team,” Menz said.
“We had a host of fantastic individual results as well as some solid team performances, and overall our athletes performed well.
“Off the piste our team shone and was great to see first-hand just how highly regarded and respected the Australian fencing team is. The culture within our group was exhilarating to be a part of.
“For me personally it was a wonderful experience being back part of the team in an administrative role, and I can’t wait to be art of future Australian tours.
“We have so much talent in our country and clearly we on a great pathway that will help us continue to shine on an international stage.”
For a full list of results from the entire competition, head to https://www.fencingtimelive.com/
