Ryan Choi falls in quarter-finals as Hong Kong end individual foil campaign at National Games
- Without Olympic champion Edgar Cheung who is out with injury, Choi posts best result for Hong Kong before losing to Asian Youth Games champion
- The team event starts on Monday but Hong Kong will find the going tough without their Olympic champion and with only three fencers available
Hong Kong ended their individual foil campaign in disappointment with both the men’s and women’s teams unable to go beyond the quarter-finals at the National Games but coach Zheng Zhaokang was not too disappointed.
Ryan Choi Chun-yin, who became the city’s biggest hope after men’s Olympic foil champion Edgar Cheung Ka-long pulled out with injury earlier in the week, went the furthest in the competition.
But the world number 12 was unable to reach the medal rounds after losing to Xu Jie of Shanxi, the Asian Youth Games champion, 15-13 in a closely fought encounter in the quarter-finals.
“The result was very close and I wasn’t too disappointed in the way he lost,” said Zheng. “Choi fought back strongly in the final stages when he closed the gap from 9-14 to 13-14 before losing the last point.
“In fact, he did a very good job in the previous round when he ousted second seed Chen Weiquan of Fukien who is also the national champion. It goes to prove how close these fencers are. The only thing that let us down was Choi had to take on teammate Cheung Siu-lun in the round of 32 which meant we lost one spot in the round of 16.”