Young Hong Kong fencer Harris Ho sweeps into main draw on World Championships debut
Seventeen-year-old is joined by women’s épéeists Moonie Chu and Wu Haidi after trio fought their way through Wednesday’s qualifying rounds
The Kerry Fencing World Championships got under way in Hong Kong on Wednesday, with Harris Ho Shing-him sweeping all before him in the pool matches and two other city athletes also making the main draw.
Held in Hong Kong for the first time, the nine-day tournament devotes its first three days to individual qualifying rounds at AsiaWorld-Expo.
The opening day featured men’s foil and women’s épée – the two weapons favoured by all three of Hong Kong’s top-16 fencers, who bypassed the qualifiers to head straight into Saturday’s main event.
The trio comprises defending champion and world No 2 men’s foilist Ryan Choi Chun-yin, two-time Olympic gold medallist Cheung Ka-long, currently ranked No 15 after winning team gold at last year’s National Games, and world No 13 women’s épéeist Kaylin Hsieh Sin-yan.
Seventeen-year-old Ho, the world No 27, went 6-0 in his morning matches to rank sixth overall in pool results, securing a direct spot in the main draw alongside Choi and Cheung.
Making his World Championships debut, Ho expressed his excitement about competing on home soil and praised the venue: “When I arrived and saw the hall, it looked better than any of the overseas World Cup stops.”