Sabre bout, 2013 World Championships, cover for Sabre fencing
Sabre bout, 2013 World Championships. Photo by Marie-Lan Nguyen, CC BY 3.0
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Sabre fencing

Team captain

The fastest weapon in fencing, and a team where everyone gets to compete.

Role
Team captain
When
2023 to present
Grades
G10 to G12
Recognition
  • 1st, Gyeonggi Superintendent's Cup (2025)
Gyeonggi Superintendent's Cup
1stGyeonggi Superintendent's Cuphigh school sabre, April 2025
Ansan national club championship
1stAnsan national club championshipJune 2024
Fencing Club Korea Open
2ndFencing Club Korea OpenJune 2024

In brief

The problem
The school team trained without a professional coach, and tournament places tended to go to the strongest few fencers, so most members never got real competitive experience.
The spark
Wonjun started with foil in Grade 9, switched to sabre in high school, and became captain in Grade 11.
The outcome
Gold at the provincial championship with several individual golds, and a more inclusive team.

Method

How it was done, step by step.

  1. 1An external coachProposed and pursued recruiting an external professional instructor to raise the training level.
  2. 2Open tournamentsOrganised tournament logistics so every member, not only the top fencers, entered competitions.
  3. 3CompeteKept competing individually through captaincy.

01Foil to sabre

Switching weapons

He began with foil in middle school, then moved to sabre, the fastest and most aggressive of the three weapons, when he entered high school, and kept training and competing through every research season.

02Captain

Raising the floor, not just the ceiling

As captain from Grade 11 he pushed for an external professional coach and reorganised tournament entries so that every member got to compete, building a team culture centred on growth rather than on a few stars.

The data

Results, rebuilt from the original slides.

ResultsHigh school men's sabre.
DateCompetitionResult
Jun 2024Fencing Club Korea Open2nd
Jun 2024Ansan City Association Cup, national club1st
202440th Seoul Association Chairman's Cup, team1st
Apr 202543rd Seoul Fencing Championship3rd
Apr 20253rd Gyeonggi Superintendent's Cup, individual1st

Plain English

Terms worth knowing.

Sabre
The fencing weapon where you can score with the edge as well as the point, on anything above the waist. Bouts are very fast.
SourcesActivity record (Korean and English)