Red hot Olympic champion Cheung Ka-long has a great opportunity to climb to the top of the world rankings this weekend at the men’s World Cup series in Cairo, Egypt.
Second in the world rankings, the highest ever of any Hong Kong foilist, Cheung is on 196 points, just 11 behind world number one Alessio Foconi, of Italy, whom he beat in the semi-finals of the last World Series in Paris in January and in the Tokyo Olympic Games last summer.
Cheung bagged 36 points when he won his first World Cup title in the French capital and if he can repeat his winning feat in Cairo, he can become the world No 1 – as long as the Italian has a relatively poor tournament. Hong Kong’s only other top-ranked fencer was women’s epeeist Vivian Kong Man-wai in 2019.
Head coach Zheng Kangzhao said it would be a miracle if a small place like Hong Kong can produce two world number ones in fencing.
Hong Kong’s Cheung Ka-long wins fencing World Cup gold
“This will be a great honour, a great privilege for the city as we only have a very small pool of fencers compared to other nations,” the coach said. “Cheung has been working with great confidence since his Olympic success and of course he has the quality to reach the pinnacle of the world rankings. But the world’s top 10 players are very close and you can hardly predict the result whenever they meet. We’ll have to see how they perform in Cairo this weekend.
“But if you compare the world number one title and international results, I would probably say results always come first. An Olympic gold medal or success at the World Championship would be far more important than just getting the world number one title.”
Foconi has been the world number one for the past two years but lost to Cheung twice in their previous encounters, both in by large margins, 15-3 in the Olympics and 15-4 in Paris.
“The world number one will also lose, so it’s not what we are looking for as the ultimate target,” said Zheng. “Cheung and many other Hong Kong team members are still young with plenty of room for improvement. We want them to consolidate their skills and strengthen their mental state by taking on quality fencers, as many as possible, so they can improve steadily. If they can do that, the results will come, same as the honour.”
Hong Kong also ranks fifth in the foil team world rankings, thanks to other young but fast improving fencers such as world number eight Ryan Choi Chun-yin, Lawrence Ng Lok-wang and Yeung Chi-ka, as well as the contribution of veterans Cheung Siu-lun and Nicholas Choi, the silver medallist at the 2018 Asian Games.
Hong Kong’s Cheung Ka-long wins historic fencing gold in Tokyo
It was expected Cheung Siu-lun, now 36, would retire from the sport after making his maiden appearance in the Olympics in Tokyo last summer, but the veteran has vowed to continue and fight along with his teammates in the new season.
Apart from Cheung and Ryan Choi, Siu-lun was the only Hong Kong fencer who made it to the round of 32 at the Paris World Cup last month.
“I feel so excited that I am still competitive in a World Cup tournament at such an age,” said the veteran. “As the most senior member of the squad, I must set an example to lead the youngsters by working harder and hope I can improve my world ranking to the top 32 as I am now 52nd.”
The top 32 players will be automatically selected for the Asian Games later this year. Siu-lun missed the last Games in Jakarta even though he was crowned 2018 Asian champion.
He first came into international fame when winning a silver medal at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, beating favourite Lei Sheng, of the hosts, in the semi-finals before losing to South Korea’s Choi Byung-chul in the gold medal match. Mainlander Lei was later crowned the 2012 London Olympic champion.
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