Italy emerged the victors from a tense final in the men’s team sabre against Ukraine.

It was a very close fight right until the end with Ukraine heading into the final match in the strongest position. But Paralympic silver medallist Artem Manko had to face bronze medallist Edoardo Giordan to get Ukraine across the line and unfortunately for Manko, Giordan and his coaches managed to create an atmosphere thick with tension with the scores at 44-44.

Manko was then handed a red card for lifting, which in turn secured the victory for Italy by just on point.

Gianmarco Paolucci and Mattia Galvagno stood alongside Giordan on the podium’s top spot.

Manko was joined in silver medal position by teammates Andrii Demchuk and Dmytro Serozhenko.

Results from the Iksan 2025 Para Fencing World Championships are available at Para fencing’s website, as well as live coverage.

As well as the men’s sabre gold, two of day’s other best matches came in the fight for bronze in the men’s team sabre.

Defending champions China were shocked twice, first in the semi-final against Italy where they were stunned by a late come-back by Giordan and then in the bronze medal match.

There they faced Germany and once again took control of proceedings with the score heading into the final round of 28-40 in China’s favour. But individual Paralympic champion Maurice Schmidt had his sights firmly set on victory and pushed Li Hao all the way, so much so that his blade broke and flew off during his surge to bring the score level. Not even a disruption like that could throw Schmidt off course and he finally clinched the victory with an extravagant celebration alongside Julius Haupt, Balwinder Cheema and Dimitrij Rout.

China’s Yuandong Chen, Xufeng Zou and Kang Su showed why they are the Paralympic champions in the women’s team epee with victory over Hong Kong, China, 45-31.

The Chinese women took over the lead in the sixth round via Chen and – crucially – managed to keep a tight grip on it until the end of the match.

But Yu Chui Yee, Nga Ting Tong and Ka Man Lam will be still be pleased with their World Championships silver medal which improves on their fifth place finish from 2023.

South Korea grabbed their second medal of their home World Championships with bronze. This match was another close affair with little to separate South Korea and their opponents, Poland.

At the start of the last bout there was just one point between Hyo Kyeong Kwon and Marta Fidrych. It was Kwon who landed the first touch and the blows went on from there as Kwon, motivated by another bronze to add to her first from the individual epee the day before, took control to reach 45 points.

Sunmi Kim and Eun Hye Cho stood alongside her on the podium.

The Iksan 2025 Para Fencing World Championships continue on Thursday (4 September) with the individual men’s epee and women’s foil.

The Iksan 2025 Para Fencing World Championships feature 240 fencers vying for medals in the men’s epee and foil category A, B and C, women’s epee and foil category A and B, men’s and women’s sabre category A and B as well as men’s and women’s team events, between 2-7 September.

Iksan 2025 takes place exactly one year after the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games and three years before the LA 2028 Paralympics.