Tokyo Paralympics: Hong Kong fall agonisingly short in team foil bronze match ending a 40-year run of fencing medal success
- Fourth place for Hong Kong as they lose in a bronze medal match that went right to the wire
- Tokyo 2020 is the first Paralympics where Hong Kong has failed to win a fencing medal in over 40 years
Hong Kong’s women’s foil team were forced to settle for another fourth-place finish in the Makuhari Messe Hall at the Tokyo Paralympics on Sunday night after falling agonisingly short in a nail-biting bronze medal match.
Hungary grabbed third place after winning a thrilling clash 45-44 with eight seconds remaining.
After a tight match where the lead changed hands five times, Hong Kong veteran Alison Yu Chui-yee, a seven-time Olympic champion, launched an astonishing comeback from 43-38 behind in the final round, scoring four touches in a row in the final minute, and drew level with just 20 seconds left on the match clock.
But the fourth-seeded Hungarians’ Eva Andrea Hajmasi grabbed the all-important final touch with just eight seconds remaining and launched wild scenes of celebration from the 2019 world champions.
“If you had asked me whether I could tie the score at 44-44, I never would have thought I could do it,” Yu said. “When you are faced with difficulties, you really want to give up. It’s very easy to do that. If you want to persist, it’s more difficult.”
At the end of a busy week, in which Yu, Justine Charissa Ng and Chung Yuen-ping competed in the individual and team events of both the foil and épée disciplines, Yu said they needed to draw on all their reserves in their final match of these Games.
“The result wasn’t what I expected, but during the process – even though we lost – it was such a memorable experience. None of us three ever thought about giving up. Even though we felt very tired and it was difficult, we still carried on. If Hong Kong people watched our match, they might have been inspired not to give up so easily.”
Yu only managed a sixth-place finish in both individual events. Ng finished ninth in the épée and 11th in the foil, while Chung was ranked 13th in both the épée and foil category B events.
Elsewhere on Sunday, it was a good day for Hong Kong’s boccia bowlers. Defending Olympic champion Leung Yuk-wing thrashed Brazil’s Marcelo dos Santos 14-0 in his second BC4 pool match. There were also wins for Yeung Hiu-lam, Vivian Lau Wai-yan, Tse Tak-wah and Ho Yuen-kei. The only disappointment was Wong Kwan-hang’s reversal against Colombia’s Euclides Grisales.
With one more pool match to be played on Monday, all six of Hong Kong’s bowlers have a chance of progressing to the quarter-finals.
