FIE Foil World Cup: Hong Kong’s men’s fencers take maiden title on home soil as Cheung Ka-long finishes job
- Hong Kong team triumph only weeks after missing out on place in Paris Olympics
- Teenager Leung Chin-yu stars before Olympic individual champion Cheung gets hosts over the line against world No 2 team Italy
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A new-look Hong Kong men’s fencing team clinched a historic title as they triumphed in their home FIE Foil World Cup leg on Saturday.
Teenager Leung Chin-yu was in stunning form, keeping Hong Kong level with the European champions as the more seasoned Ryan Choi Chun-yin and Olympic champion Cheung Ka-long combined to lose their first three bouts.
Trailing 25-17 after the first five rounds, world No 7 Cheung pulled off an 11-5 run to help narrow the gap to two points.
Leung then lost by a point against Guillaume Bianchi, who won the individual title on Friday, but 20th-ranked Choi stepped up, scoring eight points over Filippo Macchi to put Hong Kong 40-38 up.
Spurred on by deafening cheers, the city’s top fencer Cheung calmly sealed a 5-3 win over Tommaso Marini to lead his team to their maiden title in the series.
Pipped by China to a place in Paris after finishing seventh in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Hong Kong, ranked sixth as a team here, dispatched Hungary, world No 4s France and South Korea en route to the final.
Head coach Greg Koenig revealed the inclusion of Aaron Lee Yat-long, instead of Nicholas Choi, in the World Cup squad was a reward for the 23-year-old’s performances earlier this season.
“Lee made the top 16 [in the Turin Grand Prix in February] and was on the World University Games gold medal-winning team, fencing perfectly,” Koenig said. “So I am pretty sure we can count on him.
“I want something new and Lee deserves to be in the team. It’s to show everybody that if you perform well, you can be part of the team. It’s also a way to manage the team spirit, to help everybody understand that they can do it.”
Next up for Hong Kong’s men’s team will be the Asian Championships in Kuwait City next month. Donning the city’s flag there will be Cheung, Leung, Ryan Choi and Nicholas Choi.
In the women’s team event, Italy thrashed France 45-30 in the final to win their second World Cup title this season.
Hong Kong lost 33-23 to sixth seeds China in the round of 16.
Led by Paris-bound Daphne Chan Nok-sze, the hosts enjoyed a 6-5 lead after Valerie Cheng Hiu-wai beat Wang Yuting with four straight points in the second bout.
But 19-year-old Chan lost all three of her contests by a combined score of 13-2, twice being blanked, leaving Hong Kong chasing the score for almost the entire match.
Substitute Sophia Wu, who replaced Kuan Yu-ching midway through, was perfect in her two stints against Chen Qingyuan and Wang, but it was too little too late as Hong Kong suffered a 10-point loss to their mainland neighbours.
