While SAR fencers have collected one silver and five bronze medals in previous National Games,12 male and 12 female fencers will aim to win the city’s first gold this time around in events involving all three swords – foil, epee and sabre.
Two-time Olympic gold medallist and household name, Edgar Cheung, insists his teammates at this year’s Games are not to be parried with.
The foil fencer’s only National Games medal came in the men’s team foil event in 2017, when they struck bronze in Tianjin. He did not take part in the 2021 Games in Shaanxi, where his teammates ended up on the podium, again with a bronze.
He believes it’s time they went for gold, especially given they’ll be competing in front of home fans this time at Kai Tak Arena.
“I have such strong teammates here and I think for the training to prepare for the National Games we just train as usual like we always do – because we always have a lot of World Cups or a lot of competitions so we just train every day,” he said.
Cheung is partnering Ryan Choi, Leung Chin-yu and Lawrence Ng for the team event on November 19, while they will also compete individually.
Choi, for one, is having a breakout year by winning three individual titles, including at the world championships in July. The world number one says, however, that reaching the summit is like a “double-edged sword” that comes with both added confidence and pressure.
“My consistency is still not good enough,” he said. “But I’m a professional athlete. I need to learn to perform under high pressure so I think these few weeks maybe I will talk more to myself, understand myself more and hopefully on the day in the National Games I can perform the maximum I have.”
Epeeist Kaylin Hsieh says that rather than aiming for a medal, it may be easier to simply focus on performing well.
“I just want our team and also myself to just perform what we have and just our ability because I feel like if we can do it anything is possible so that’s the goal,” she said.
Head coach Zheng Kangzhao said he hopes the team will achieve a breakthrough and win a gold medal at last.
“I hope that in this edition of the Games, especially since we are competing at home, we can achieve a breakthrough and win a gold medal,” he said.
“That’s my wish and hope, but there’s no pressure. It’s not a must. I hope all athletes can enjoy the competition without pressure and perform well.”
There will be 12 gold medals up for grabs during the five days of bouts starting from Saturday.
