Cheung Ka-long drops down in ranking after defeat at fencing World Championships

Cheung Ka-long, a famous Hong Kong left-handed foil fencer, two-time individual Asian champion, and 2021 individual Olympic champion, lost in the quarter-finals of the men’s foil at the Fencing World Championships in Milan, a city in northern Italy. He fell to Japan’s Kyosuke Matsuyama in the last eight. With this, he fell 2 more places to no. 7 in rankings.

The 26-year-old, who was the top men’s foilist in the world and won bronze at last year’s World Championships in Cairo, was the only one of Hong Kong’s men to make it to the later stages of the World Championships tournament. 

Olympic gold medallist Cheung Ka-long beat fencer Lee Kwanghyun of South Korea, Hungarian fencer Gergo Szemes, and world No 12 Alexander Choupenitch of the Czech Republic. He took on Kyosuke Matsuyama for a place in the final four.

Kyosuke Matsuyama, a Japanese fencer who won one of the bronze medals in the men’s team foil event at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, ended up with a bronze medal for his efforts at the recent fencing World Championships in Milan. French foilist Enzo Lefort also received a bronze medal for his efforts. 

Tommaso Marini, an Italian right-handed foil fencer, won the gold medal at the tournament. He took the top place on the podium. With this, he won the host country’s second gold medal of the International Fencing Federation (FIE) Fencing World Championships.

He beat the United States’ Nick Itkin to land gold at the tournament. In the women’s sabre, Japan’s Misaki Emura defended her women’s sabre title.

Ryan Choi Chun-yin, a Hong Kong fencer who competed in the men’s team foil event at the 2020 Summer Olympics, knocked out world No 9 Alaaeldin Abouelkassem and Belgian Stef de Greef, before losing 15-10 to US’ Itkin in the round 16.