2024 Paris Olympics: Hong Kong fencers warned not to take qualification for granted after poor World Cup showing

Men’s foil team finishes 13th at World Cup series event in Paris, well behind Japan, China and South Korea

Head coach Zheng Kangzhao sounded the warning ahead of the Olympic qualifiers, which begin in April

Reading Time:2 minutes

Hong Kong reacts after their loss to Team ROC in the men’s foil team quarter-finals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. Photo: Getty Images

Published: 5:00pm, 16 Jan 2023

Hong Kong’s fencers were warned they could not take Olympic qualification for granted after the men’s foil team finished a disappointing 13th at the World Cup series event in Paris over the weekend.

The city’s squad, featuring Tokyo Games gold medallist Cheung Ka-long, ended the tournament well behind Japan, China and South Korea, who finished third, fourth and sixth respectively.

Hong Kong were the only team from Asia to qualified for the 2020 Olympics, with Japan entering as the hosts, but head coach Zheng Kangzhao said the weekend’s result should serve as a warning ahead of qualification for Paris 2024 starting in April.

Men’s team foil competition at the Paris World Cup series. Photo: FIE

“This is a warning and we have to study reasons for the poor result,” Zheng said. “The Olympic qualifies will begin in April and even if we have the quality, which I am pretty confident, we cannot take things for granted.

“There will be two chances for Asian teams to make it to 2024 Paris, either as one of the top four teams in the world or the highest-ranked Asian team if they are not in the top four. Now it seems the competition is going to be very tough.”

At the Paris World Cup, Hong Kong were beaten 45-44 by Ukraine in the round of 16, before losing 45-34 to the hosts in the play-off for 9th to 16th position.

Cheung Ka-long (left) has achieved a good performance in the individual event with a bronze medal, his first podium finish since the beginning of the season. Photo: FIE

“We easily beat Ukraine by more than 20 touches during the World Cup series in Tokyo just one month ago and we need to find out why there is such a big difference in such a short period of time,” Zheng said.