Improving boys raise expectations
Hong Kong's head coach Wang Rui-ji has praised his boys' impressive performance at last month's Asian youth championships in Singapore.
The boys won seven medals at the six-day event, comprising a gold in the team sabre event, two silver and four bronze medals. The girls claimed three silver and three bronze medals to ensure an overall team haul of one gold, five silver and seven bronze medals.
'The boys performed way beyond my expectations, especially the cadet team,' Wang said. The coach is thrilled by the potential of young fencers. One of them is 17-year-old Low Ho-tin. He clinched the boys' junior sabre silver medal, in addition to helping Hong Kong strike gold in the team sabre event.
'I took part in both the junior and the [younger] cadet matches this year,' Ho-tin said. 'Going into the competition, I was focusing on getting a medal in the cadet event for the last time as I will be too old to compete [in the category] in the future. But as things turned out I ended up winning a medal in the junior category where I didn't have any great hopes.
'It really boosted my confidence. And I hope I can get a good junior ranking in Hong Kong so that I can represent Hong Kong in more international competitions in the future.'
Ho-tin is going to the mainland for intensive training this month.
Another young fencer, 16-year-old Cyrus Chang Chi-hin, has set his sights on next year's Junior and Cadet World Championships after winning a silver medal in the boys' cadet event in Singapore.
'I'm looking forward to competing against junior fencers from around the world to gain more experience,' he said.
'The level of junior fencers is much more advanced than the among the cadets.'
