Asian Games 2023: Cheung Ka-long adds historic gold to collection, says win was ‘a dream come true’
- Cheung Ka-long wins city’s first fencing title at an Asian Games with dominant victory over China’s Chen Haiwei
- There is bronze too for teammate Ryan Choi, while Vivian Kong is forced to settle for bronze for third straight Games
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Hong Kong hero Cheung Ka-long added yet another accolade to his long list of honours on Sunday, winning a first Asian Games fencing gold medal for the city.
The Olympic champion reeled off 12 points in a row to thrash the hosts’ Chen Haiwei 15-2 in a one-sided men’s foil individual final in Hangzhou.
The 26-year-old said he was thrilled to complete his personal collection of regional championships.
“I was only missing the Games gold to win all the titles in Asia, so, I did think about it before the final,” the world No 7 said. “It’s an important matter in terms of my career, and it’s just like a milestone.”
Cheung, who said his form was “only alright” throughout the day, survived a scare in the semi-finals before overcoming Takahiro Shikine of Japan. The Hongkonger trailed 14-12 but won three points on the trot to turn the match around.
“My coach [Greg Koenig] just told me to ignore what my opponent was doing,” he said. “I just focused on myself and went at him one point after another.
“Coach asked me to be bold and not to follow his rhythm – I trusted him and it just happened.”
Cheung’s gold was not the city’s only fencing medal on a successful opening day at the Hangzhou Dianzi University Gymnasium.
Compatriot Ryan Choi Chun-yin, who lost 15-9 to Chen in the other semi-final, took bronze at his first Games competing in the men’s foil individual event.
Hong Kong leader John Lee Ka-chiu, who has attended several matches at the Games and also the award ceremonies in Hangzhou, congratulated the athletes on his Facebook page. “The team and I only did one thing today, which was cheering and clapping for the athletes wholeheartedly to show our support,” he said.
Lee also congratulated Cheung in person after the match.
World No 2 Vivian Kong Man-wai had to settle for a third straight bronze at the Asiad, after falling to Sera Song in the women’s epee individual semi-finals.
The 29-year-old Hongkonger earlier went through 10 minutes of torment in the quarter-finals against Sofiya Nikolaichuk of Kazakhstan, after a rare disqualification for inactivity.
With the score tied at 2-2, the referee issued a P-Black card early in the second session as the match went a whole minute without a touch for the fourth time.
In the case of a tied match, the referee is supposed to show a P-Black card to the player with a lower world ranking – in this case, Nikolaichuk. The referee, however, is thought to have signalled Kong should be disqualified because of her lower finish in the pool stage.
Octavian Zidaru, the city’s epee head coach, reasoned with officials before they issued a P-Black card to the Kazakh and had her disqualified instead.
“I never had that before, I only wanted to play better and be more cautious,” Kong said. “I think had I really been eliminated just like that, I’d be letting all of you down.
“It’s a good lesson for me nevertheless, but it shouldn’t happen at the Asian Games as I should have been more aware about what the rules were.”
The former world No 1 added that she could have performed better and said she was disappointed at having to settle for third best yet again.
“I was expecting more of myself because I think my body condition, my mentality, and experience is at my best compared to the past two Games,” she said. “But I couldn’t do what I was supposed to.
“I could feel my improvement yet it wasn’t reflected in my results, so I need more improvement obviously,” the three-time Asian Championships winner added. “I really hoped to demonstrate what I worked on in training, but it wasn’t to be.”
