Yuki Ota, Japan's first Olympic fencing medalist, and former head of the nation's fencing federation, called Japan's first fencing gold medal on Friday a true breakthrough.Although Ota won both of Japan's previous Olympic fencing medals, a men's individual foil silver from the 2008 Beijing Games and a team foil silver in London four years later, he called the Tokyo Olympics men's team epee gold the real breakthrough."They won the kind of medal that is essential to spread fencing's popularity in Japan. This gold medal is the ultimate prize," said Ota, who ran the Japanese Fencing Federation …READ FULL ARTICLE
