PARIS OLYMPICS: COACH GREG KOENIG SAYS FENCERS ON TRACK DESPITE MEDIOCRE ASIAN MEET RESULTS

• The men's foil team barely extended their 18-year medal-winning streak at the event, but managed to identify the person to fill the No 3 spot

Head coach Greg Koenig said the performances of Hong Kong's foilists at the recent Asian Fencing Championships in Kuwait were disappointing but that the team's preparations for the Paris Olympics remain on track.

The Frenchman also said he had solved one of the men's team's long-standing issues by successfully identifying teenager Leung Chin-yu as their No 3 fencer.

Back-to-back losses in the men's team event - to China in the semi-finals and then to Japan in the third-place bout on Thursday - meant that Hong Kong barely extended heir medal streak at the continental championships as losing semi-finalists are guaranteed a bronze medal.

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The city's men's team have won a spot on the podium every year since 2007, with their best result coming in Bangkok in 2018, when they finished behind only South Korea.

Hong Kong were leading China 41-35 in the final round in Kuwait City through reigning Olympic champion Cheung Ka-long, but Mo Ziwei then won several points on the trot to turn the match around at 44-43.

Despite world No 2 Cheung's best efforts to draw level, Mo landed the winning blow to edge out Hong Kong in a nail-biting 45-44 win.

"We made a very good match against China and we missed the victory in the money time," Koenig said. "We will come back stronger next year."

Hong Kong's 18-year medal streak in the mean's team event may have only just survived in the Middle East but Koenig was adamant the team walked away with several positives.

Leung, 19, won four of his eight bouts with impressive victories over bronze medallists Mo and Japan's Takahiro Shikine in the team event and lost only twice.

"To be honest, the most positive part of this Championship is that I finally found a No 3 for Hong Kong with Leung," he said. "I know we will be more consistent in performance from now.

"He showed very good things and is an important piece of the Hong Kong team in the future. His loss against Ryan Choi [Chun-yin] in the individual event was unfortunate."

While Cheung's lead role on the team remains undisputed, the two-time Asian champions did throw away massive leads down the stretch both in individual and team events over the past week.

But Koenig was largely unfazed by the less than satisfactory results.

"He could have finished off his [round of 16] match after leading [Kyosuke Matsuyama] 14-8, so, the individual event is, of course, disappointing," the 45-year-old former fencer said. "But we are fully focused on the Olympics with Ka-long.

"It's very hard to be in perfect condition during this competition when you know you have to defend your Olympic title in one month, so let's be positive and focus on the Olympic Games."

Five of the city's six teams - the exception being the women's sabre quartet - managed a bronze at the six-day event in Kuwait, while Paris-bound men's epeeists Cedric Ho Wai-hang and Anson Ng Ho-tin were the only individual medallists as the duo claimed the top two places in their event.

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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.

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2024-06-28T08:06:08Z dg43tfdfdgfd