Olympic champion Cheung Ka-long to miss Hong Kong’s National Games test event
Challenge Cup at Kai Tak Arena will double as test event, but some leading fencers are favouring overseas competitions
Olympic champion Cheung Ka-long may not compete at Kai Tak Arena before Hong Kong co-hosts the National Games in November after his name was omitted from the entries for this month’s Challenge Cup Fencing Championships.
Cheung was not the only big name missing from the line-up for the annual local event at the arena on May 31 and June 1, which will double as the test event for the Games. Hong Kong’s top men’s and women’s épéeists, Cedric Ho Wai-hang and Kaylin Hsieh Sin-yan, will also be absent.
However, promising names including men’s and women’s foilists Leung Chin-yu and Daphne Chan Nok-sze, and men’s sabreist Royce Chan Lok-hei, were among the 374 fencers listed.
Greg Koenig, the city’s foil team head coach, said Cheung was not on the list, which was updated on Friday, because the Challenge Cup was taking place too close to other tournaments.
“This competition is quite close to the Asian Championships [from June 19 to 22 in Bali] and it’s not critical for his ranking, so I’ll preserve him to be fully prepared,” the Frenchman said.
The city’s men’s foil team will also compete in the Grand Prix in Shanghai from Friday to Sunday, while the men’s épée team has just completed a Grand Prix event in Bogota, Colombia.