- The 34-year-old is poised to become the oldest Hong Kong athlete this summer if the Games go ahead
- After failing to make it to the 2012 and 2016 Games, foilist has double reason to celebrate after making both the team and individual competitions
Veteran fencer Cheung Siu-lun has finally become an Olympian thanks to persistence, patience and a lot of hard work that countered years of disappointment.
Cheung returned to Hong Kong with his fellow foil team members from Anaheim, California, where they took part in a training camp, but the hard work had already been done.
Cheung, who turns 35 in July, is poised to become the oldest Hong Kong athlete in his maiden Olympics.
"Yes, possibly I'll be the oldest member of the squad," said Cheung, who speaks on behalf of the younger members of the foil quartet featuring Edgar Cheung Ka-long (22), Ryan Choi Chun-yin (22) and Lawrence Ng Lok-wang (19).
"But it's still too early to talk about the Tokyo Olympics even if we have qualified. We don't even know whether the Games will go ahead as scheduled. The coronavirus outbreak has made life difficult for everyone in the sports community.
The Hong Kong fencing has been competing all over the world to pick up ranking points to qualify for Tokyo and Cheung admitted it had been a "long journey".
"It has indeed been a long journey since we left Hong Kong in early February, the longest ever I have spent time overseas for training and competition but it was also the most exciting two months of my career. It was totally worth it and it makes me happy that we have completed our mission."
Hong Kong fencing team one step from making historic Olympic appearance
The team left for a training camp in France on February 1 when the coronavirus first surfaced in Hong Kong and threatened to throw a spanner in the works of their plans. They successfully took part in the Grand Prix in Turin the following week before returning to France to train ahead of the crucial World Cup series in Cairo, the last team qualification for Tokyo.
In Egypt's capital, they won bronze before they travelled to Los Angeles for another training camp ahead of the Grand Prix in Anaheim over the weekend. They beat regional rivals South Korea in Cairo, dumping the long-time Asian foil heavyweights out of the Tokyo Olympics and confirming Hong Kong's first ever fencing team entry into the Olympics.
Although the Anaheim Grand Prix (for individual foil only) was suspended due to the escalation of virus outbreak in the United States, it didn't make any difference to the final result as Hong Kong punched their tickets to Tokyo in both team and individual competitions.
Cheung has been a regular member of this team since the qualification campaign began in April last year and is also likely to get an individual event berth.
Cheung has been striving hard to make the Olympics since the 2012 London Games but has had little success despite some noteworthy results.
Hong Kong narrowly miss out on fencing team gold at Asian Games
Two years before the Games, Cheung ousted then reigning world team champion Lei Sheng, of China, at the Guangzhou Asian Games before clinching a silver medal in the men's individual foil, the first ever for Hong Kong. The stunning result put him a favourite to represent Hong Kong at the Olympic Games in London but unfortunately the rising star was subsequently was hit by a back injury that put paid to his hopes.
Nicholas Choi, a then a 19-year-old, took the Olympic berth for Hong Kong at the time.
A year after the London Olympics, a fit-again Cheung came back with a vengeance.
He became the first fencer from Hong Kong to win a bronze medal at the Asian Championships, reached the quarter-finals at the World Championships and most of all, steered Hong Kong to gold in the team foil at the 2013 East Asian Games in Tianjin. Cheung scored six points in a row in the last bout to stun hosts China 45-40 in the final to clinch their first-ever victory over the mainlanders on the international stage.
But then another youngster quietly came through the ranks. This time it was Edgar Cheung Ka-long who surged to the top and overshadowed Cheung Siu-lun. After capturing four golds at the 2014 Asian Junior Championships, Cheung Ka-long joined the senior squad at the Asian Games in Incheon to capture bronze in the team event. A year later, he matched Siu-lun's Asian Championship record by clinching bronze and in 2016 he became the first Asian champion for Hong Kong at just 19.
With Hong Kong failing to win a team berth for the 2016 Rio Games, the younger Cheung represented Hong Kong at the zonal qualifiers as an individual fencer, punching his ticket for Brazil and reaching the second round of the Olympics, the first for a Hong Kong fencer.
But Cheung Siu-lun has made his dream come true this time but whether the Tokyo Games will go ahead depends on whether the coronavirus plaguing the world can be beaten.
With a secured place for the 2020 Games, the team has no immediate plans to travel again as the recent epidemic situation has many countries in lock down.
"We were so lucky in terms of avoiding the impact of the virus," said the veteran. "We left Turin before the northern part of Italy was seriously affected by the virus. The same thing happened in France when we were already in Cairo. After we left Egypt, we were able to train in Los Angeles without much interference (by the virus) and when America was finally hit by it, we were on our way home. Hopefully we can stay strong all the way to the Tokyo Games."
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