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Cut and thrust of life at the sharp end

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Representing your country at the Olympics is the pinnacle for athletes, and in most developed nations they would be showered with financial and other support. That is not always the case in Hong Kong, as fencer Leung Ka-ming has discovered.

Two weeks ago in Wakayama, Japan, Leung, 23, qualified for the London Games, becoming the first fencer from Hong Kong to win a spot in the individual epee competition at an Olympics. Yet just a few years ago, Leung was forced to go cap in hand to teammates to borrow money so he could take part in training camps and competitions overseas.

Leung, though, is not bitter about the hard road he has had to travel to London. 'I beat the top two seeds in Wakayama and am one of just 30 [epee] fencers to qualify for the Games. I'm really pleased to be the first from Hong Kong to qualify for this discipline. All the hard work and sacrifices have been worthwhile,' said Leung, a second year social work student at City University.

When Leung first took up epee in secondary school, there was very little support for the discipline at the Hong Kong Sports Institute, even though fencing as a whole has been an elite programme at the Fo Tan training complex since it was set up in the late 1970s.

The only support Leung and his teammates received was for local training and competitions. But they knew that to reach the next level it was crucial to go abroad to test themselves against the rest of the world.

'It was pretty tough for us in those days, because the Sports Institute devoted more resources to the other fencing disciplines [foil and sabre]. Perhaps it was because Hong Kong had not had particularly good results in epee at international events,' Leung said.

'But we were not discouraged. We could still go abroad for competition - but at our own expense. Some members of the team had jobs, so it wasn't too bad for them. Others, like me, had to borrow the money.'

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