4 days ago
- Sport
- South China Morning Post
Olympic fencing winner Cheung Ka-long to face ex-world champ in Hong Kong exhibition bout
Two-time Olympic winner Cheung Ka-long will face off against former world champion Enzo Lefort of France in the city in a fortnight, the organisers announced on Tuesday.
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To celebrate the co-hosting of the National Games, which runs in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau from November 9 to 21, a local charity organisation is staging a fencing exhibition at the Hong Kong Palace Museum later this month.
The August 26 event, organised by the GDCD Association, will pit left-hander Cheung against Lefort – a three-time world champion and a Tokyo Olympics men's foil team gold medallist – in a rematch of their quarter-final tie at the Paris Olympic Games last year.
Hongkonger Cheung won 15-14 on the way to clinching his second straight Olympic gold medal, having done so at the Tokyo Games in 2021.
The exhibition will mark the first time the Palace Museum in West Kowloon will host a fencing event, and a senior official of the local association admitted he was 'sceptical' about the possibility at the start.
China's Zhong Man, the 2008 Olympics sabre champion, will face Hong Kong's Antonio Lam. Photo: AFP
'The Games at the Grand Palais in Paris last summer proved fencing events could be held anywhere,' said Antonio Lam Hin-chung, acting general secretary of the Fencing Association of Hong Kong, China. 'There was doubt initially, but we found that it was feasible to stage an event [at the museum].'
