Haiyan Gu, Xiao Rong and Xufeng Zou were the victors in the women’s teams sabre.

They took on Poland’s Marta Firych, Kinga Drozdz and Jadiwga Pacek in the final who fell to China’s extensive pedigree, including new individual world champion Gu.

It was an electrifying match for bronze between Ukraine and Georgia.

Described as more like an epee match due to the close exchange of points, Ukraine led – but only by two points – until Nina Tibilashvili claimed the lead for Georgia in the penultimate match by scoring eight points against Ukraine’s Olena Fedota Isaieva.

As Gvantsa Zadishvili took to the piste against Nataliia Morkvych, it was still all to play for. The tension continued to rise and Morkvych continued to push but Zadishvili handled it perfectly, taking her team across the line with a 5-4 score.

2017 individual world champion Irma Khetsuriani was visibly emotional as her and Tibilashvili rose from the team box to join Zadishvili in wild celebration.

China’s men also won the men’s team foil in a classic battle with Great Britain.

Yang Chen, Yanke Feng, Saichun Zhong headed into the final without a single world Championships gold medallist in their team. In contrast, Great Britain had new world champion Dimitri Coutya in their locker. Coutya had beaten Feng 24 hours before in the individual final.

China took an early lead but Great Britain kept themselves in contention with Lam Watson scoring five points unanswered, plus three, to give his team a one-point lead against Feng. Gilliver maintained it in the next match against Feng but China dug-in at that point. It was Zhong who turned things around in the sixth round before returning to finish the job. The final score was 45-37.

Piers Gilliver, Oliver Lam-Watson and Coutya finished Iksan 2025 with silver.

Paris 2024 bronze medallists France began the team foil with a completely new set of fencers to those that raised the roof of the Grand Palais one year ago.

Quentin Fernandez-Anssoux, Thomas Tachjidan and Gaetan Charlot took on Italy’s Michele Massa, Emanuele Lambertini and Matteo Betti for bronze at the start of a new journey for the French team.

However their arrival in a World Championships medal match at this stage will have to be enough for the Paralympic hosts as Italy ran away with the match to take the final podium spot.

The 2025 Para Fencing World Championships took place between 2-7 September and featured around 140 Para fencers from 30 countries competing in men’s and women’s individual and team epee, foil and sabre category A, B and C.

The next competition will be the next edition of the 2025 Para Fencing World Cup in Solo, Indonesia, from 15-18 September.