Hong Kong head fencing coach Zheng Zhaokang has set an unambiguous target for the city's squad at this summer's World Fencing Championships, telling reporters at a pre-event preview that the team's expectation on home soil is simple. "Medals. Medals!" he said, before adding a longer-term frame to the moment.
"I'm very happy because this is the first time Hong Kong is hosting the World Fencing Championships," Zheng said. "It will play a very positive role in promoting and popularizing the sport in Hong Kong."
The championships, the first to be held on Hong Kong soil, mark a milestone for a city whose fencing programme has risen from a niche pursuit to one of the most decorated minority sports in Asia. Olympic foil champion Edgar Cheung Ka-long and world-ranked men's foilist Ryan Choi Chun-yin sit at the centre of a squad that will hope to convert home advantage into individual and team medals.
For Cheung, the prospect of competing at world level in Hong Kong carries a personal weight that he was happy to put into words. "Fencing in my hometown is an honour. I'm very excited about it. I'll just try my best every time," the Olympic champion said.
Cheung framed the championships as a chance to show how far Hong Kong's broader sporting culture had come. "Before, maybe we didn't have enough confidence to show Hong Kong people that we were good in sport," he said. "But now I think our team and athletes across different sports have shown everyone that we are capable of doing anything."
That confidence has translated into a wider participation base. Choi, the world No. 1, pointed to a generational shift in the sport's profile that has been visible at club level since Cheung's Tokyo 2020 gold. "When I started fencing, it wasn't a popular sport," Choi said. "But after Ka-long won Olympic gold, and after all the history we've created over the years, more and more people support us, and more and more kids are trying fencing."
"This is very meaningful to me, and I hope it will continue to grow."
The administrative arms of the sport have been preparing the city for the championships for two years. The Hong Kong Fencing Association has hosted a string of warm-up tournaments at the venue, with a particular focus on familiarising local officials and volunteers with the FIE's electronic scoring and refereeing protocols. The federation's leadership has openly framed the event as the most important moment in Hong Kong fencing's history.
The championships' competition format will follow the FIE's standard structure — individual and team events across foil, épée and sabre, men's and women's. Hong Kong's strongest medal prospects sit in the men's and women's foil disciplines, with Cheung the reigning Olympic champion and Choi the reigning world No. 1.
For a coaching staff that has steadily built one of the most respected high-performance set-ups in Asian fencing, the chance to deliver in front of a home audience is the one milestone the programme has not yet checked. Zheng's two-word target left no doubt that the squad intends to make the moment count.
