Song Se-ra (30, Busan City Hall, photo), the national representative of women’s fencing epee, originally had no hesitation in revealing her feelings. When she was in her third year at Geumsan Girls’ Middle School in South Chungcheong Province, she was knocked out in the quarterfinals of the 2008 National Boys Sports Festival. She was a rare find in ‘gentleman’s sport’ fencing. She then ran out of the field, shaking off her opponent’s hand as she shook her hand after the game, called Se-ra Song.
But now she is Song Se-ra, and she has become a player who does not show her feelings at all. Even when she isn’t wearing a mask, her expression is hard to read. Even Jang Na-ra, who is the same age as her, who has been working out with her for 8 years at Busan City Hall, her team, said, “There are times when I feel sad because it is difficult to understand her inner thoughts.”
Se-ra Song, who we met on the 10th at the fencing center of the Busan Asiad Main Stadium, her team’s training ground, said, “Even if the opponent is wearing a mask, you can tell their state of mind, such as whether they are impatient or not, by their movements.” I read the numbers and often counterattacked. She made a lot of effort to hide her psychological state,” she said.
Unlike saber and foil, where you get points by stabbing her anywhere from head to toe first, épée is a fencing event that allows simultaneous strokes. Because of this, it is relatively difficult to reverse the game if the score is given first. Busan City Hall coach Kim Seon-geun (51) said, “It is easy to get impatient if you concede first in Epee, but Sera is not like that. She is very aloof even when she is falling behind,” he said. “That’s why our team players call Sera ‘the master of composure.’
Song Se-ra is the number one female epee in Korea. She is ranked 5th in the world, the highest among her domestic players. In February of last year she won her individual event at the World Cup in Barcelona. In July of the same year, she won two gold medals at the World Championships in Cairo, where she reached the top in both the individual and team events. Song Se-ra was the first Korean player to win two gold medals in women’s epee at the World Championships. In May of this year, she won the World Cup in Fujairah, where she defeated Vivian Kong (Hong Kong), world number one at the time.
It wasn’t that I didn’t get good grades from the first time I grabbed a fencing knife. In 2007, at the recommendation of her physical education teacher, she took up fencing. Until she graduated from high school, she never won a national championship. She reached the top of the national competition, which she first stepped on only in 2012, during her college days, when she won the team event rather than the individual event. “She trained really hard during her school days, but I don’t think she was born with talent,” she said.스포츠토토
She said that the ‘boiling point’ came to Sera Song in 2014, when she was in her third year of college. That year she placed first in her individual event for the first time during the presidency of the Korea University Fencing Federation. She has since won gold medals in every competition she has participated in, and in 2015 she was first selected for the national team.
She is 164 cm tall, and she is on the small side for a fencer. Most of the players she faces in international competitions are over 170 cm tall. Her arm length is also 3cm shorter than her opponents. This is why Song Sera uses a bent bar-shaped French grip instead of a pistol grip-shaped pistol grip. The French grip is heavier than the pistol grip but longer.
Sera Song made up for the unfavorable physical condition with her feet. Sera Song has been fast on her feet since she was a child. She was always the last runner in the relay race when the school sports day was held. Even when she played dodgeball she always survived to the end. She dodged the flying ball very well with her quick feet. Se-ra Song said, “I have a habit of looking at the opponent’s feet before starting the game. Most of the tall players have big feet, so I have an advantage in stabbing,” she said.
Song Sera will challenge for two gold medals in the individual and team competitions at the Hangzhou Asian Games, which will open next month. He said, “I think I can reduce the pain in the injured area a lot before the Asian Games.” I will challenge myself to win two gold medals in the Asian Games as well.” Sera Song finished ninth in the individual event at the World Championships in Milan last month due to an Achilles tendon injury. Kim Hee-jeong (48, retired) was the only Korean female fencing player to win two gold medals in the epee event at the Asian Games during the 2002 Busan Games.