Olympic Champion Cheung Ka-long Narrowly Beats Ryan Choi to Win the Hong Kong Open Foil Championship

Cheung Ka-long, who won the gold medal in the men’s individual foil event at Tokyo Olympics, won the championship in the Leisure and Cultural Services Department Open Fencing Championships on Aug. 14. In the final, Cheung Ka-long pulled back 3 strikes in 12 seconds to win the game when he was behind.

The Foil and Saber competitions of “Leisure and Cultural Services Department Open Fencing Championships” were held at Hong Kong Park Sports Centre on Aug. 14.

Cheung Ka-long, who represented the Hong Kong team in the Foil event, defeated Nicholas Edward Choi, who also belongs to the Hong Kong team, 15:11 in the round of 16. He also defeated his opponent Yeung Chi-ka 15:5 in the round of 8.

In addition to Cheung Ka-long, Ryan Choi, Lawrence Ng, and Lee Yat-long all entered the semi-finals. Cheung, Choi, and Ng were all players in the Egyptian World Fencing Championships earlier.

Although Lee Yat-long knocked out Hong Kong’s new foil star, World Youth Champion Cheng Tit-nam in the quarterfinals, Cheung Ka-long advanced 15:4 with his advantageous height of 193 cm (73 inches) in the semi-finals.

On the other side of the semi-finals, Ryan Choi and Lawrence Ng had equal scores during the two-day competition. Before the end of the game in the third round, the score between the two was 13:13. Finally, Ryan Choi defeated Lawrence Ng in the last strike to advance.

The final was tight. World No. 2 Cheung Ka-long and World No. 8 Ryan Choi were equal many times. The first game was a 6-6 draw, the second game ended at 12:14, and Cheung Ka-long rushed to catch up in the third game. At 14:14, it was a tie. In the end, Cheung Ka-long narrowly defeated Ryan Choi to win the championship.

This tournament is one of the local scoring competitions. It is expected that Cheung Ka-long and Ryan Choi will qualify for the Hangzhou Asian Games.

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