Hong Kong's men's foil team have walked off the World Cup season with a gold medal earned the hard way - down 4-10 in the opening minutes, level by mid-final, and ahead by the time the anchor leg started.
The Edgar Cheung Ka-long, Ryan Choi Chun-yin, Mike Lam Ho-long and Cheng Tit-nam line-up beat the United States 45-38 in the Paris final to close out the 2025-26 FIE foil schedule, with Japan taking bronze in the day's earlier playoff. The result delivers Hong Kong a second senior team gold in the FIE World Cup era, after the 2024 home win at AsiaWorld-Expo against Italy.
"Hong Kong, China's men's foil fencing team completed their 2025-2026 season campaign for the FIE World Cup in Paris this past weekend with a stunning finish atop the podium, bagging gold for their combined effort," the official tournament report read.
The Paris bracket was a stacked field, with Italy, France and Japan all carrying medal-favourite tags through the early rounds. Hong Kong had to navigate the host nation in front of a partisan home crowd before reaching the final, where the United States set out at a sprint. The early 4-10 deficit was not just a slow start - the U.S. had Alexander Massialas in form, and the early bouts forced Cheung onto the back foot.
The comeback was a whole-team build. Cheng and Lam steadied the score across the middle bouts, and Cheung's tactical adjustment - tighter distance, fewer step-attacks, more conservative parries - dragged the score back to even before the final third. By the time Choi stepped to the strip for the anchor leg, the contest sat on a knife-edge.
The reigning men's foil world champion did not need much time to settle it.
"Choi then faced US fencer Alexander Massialas for the last bout, where Choi ensured his team's victory, achieving a 5-0 score to bring the final score to 45-38, securing gold for Hong Kong," the tournament write-up confirmed.
Choi's 5-0 anchor leg has already been singled out by analysts as one of the cleaner closing performances of the season - a reigning world champion taking on the United States' most accomplished foilist and not conceding a touch. It was also a reminder of how deep Hong Kong's foil bench has become. Cheung is a two-time Olympic gold medallist; Choi is the current world champion; Lam and Cheng are both top-30 individual ranking fencers.
The result reshapes the men's team foil leaderboard at the top of the season-long standings. With the World Cup season closed, Hong Kong moves into the off-season block with momentum and a reconfirmed gold-medal core ahead of an Asian Games cycle and a Los Angeles 2028 Olympic build.
For the United States, second place stings but does not dent a strong overall season. Massialas and his teammates produced a deep run through the bracket and held their own through three of the four bouts of the final. The early 10-4 burst was the kind of opening that wins finals more often than not.
The bigger story, though, is Hong Kong's continued ascent. A city that did not have a senior FIE foil podium until very recently is now closing seasons on the top step with a roster that mixes Olympic, world and World Cup credentials. Paris was the final dot on a connected line - and the next one will be drawn at the Asian Games.
