Edgar Cheung muscles his way to the foil semis

Defending Olympic champion Edgar Cheung overcame a partisan home crowd to edge out Enzo Lefort of France for a place in the semi-finals of the men’s individual foil on Monday. Lefort took control in the opening stages, with Cheung ending the first round down 3-5. The SAR athlete was able to turn it around early in the second round, but the French fencer fought back, leading to a nail-biting back and forth that ended with the second round score at 13-14. Cheung, knowing he would go out if he lost another point, scored two quick points in an intense final round to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, taking Hong Kong, China into the final four. “When you fence against a guy who is a two-time world champion, who is playing in his hometown with all the public, of course it’s going to be hard, harder than usual but Ka-long found the psychological resources to put the last point, which is amazing regarding to the match, so I am very, very again proud of what he did,” said coach Gregory Koenig. “You have to understand that even when you are tired, you have enough adrenaline to find the resources. You are tired but the psychological is the most important at this point. Even when you have pain everywhere, you have to think ‘OK I have pain, but this is life, this is how it is, I have to do what I know what to do’ and that is what he did in the last two points. The last two points were amazing.” Koenig added that his next opponent Kazuki Iimura of Japan would definitely be a challenge, saying the Japanese fencer might be shorter than Cheung, but he moves very quickly.