FIE Foil World Cup Hong Kong: home favourite Cheung Ka-long suffers upset but still confident over Olympic seeding
- Olympic champion loses to world No 83 Davide Filippi of Italy but looks forward to two more competitions to improve Games seeding
- Guillaume Bianchi and Maia Weintraub win men’s and women’s titles at city’s AsiaWorld-Expo
Hong Kong’s golden boy Cheung Ka-long suffered a premature exit on home soil at fencing’s FIE Foil World Cup as Guillaume Bianchi and Maia Weintraub took the men’s and women’s titles respectively.
The reigning Olympic champion lost 15-14 to Davide Filippi of Italy in the round of 16 on Friday to record his worst World Cup result this season ahead of the Paris Olympic Games this summer.
Receiving a bye to the main draw as one of the top seeds, the Hongkonger did show a glimpse of his early-season form by knocking out Choi Minseo of South Korea and Jaimie Cook of Great Britain to reach the last 16.
But the 26-year-old, ranked sixth, bowed out in a tight 15-14 bout against world No 83 Filippi.
“I need to tune my condition, for sure, because I had a short break after Washington [Grand Prix] in March,” Cheung said. “But this is the life of an athlete, there are always ups and downs.
“It’s rare to hear some Cantonese cheering. We enjoyed competing in front of our home fans, so I hope there will be more similar events in the future.”