BANGKOK, Thailand, June 17, 2018—Siu Lun Cheung of Hong Kong is the winner of the men’s individual foil competition on the opening night of the Bangkok Asia-Oceania Zonal Fencing Championships in Bangkok, Thailand. Korea’s Olympic gold medallist Kim Jiyeon also took first place in the individual women’s sabre event. Nearly 140 fencers took part in the day’s tournaments, and in all, six days of competition will feature 12 individual and team events at the Championships, which are taking place on the Rangsit Campus of Bangkok’s Thammasat University.
Cheung and Korea’s Jun Heo faced-off in the final match of the men’s individual foil event, with Cheung taking the gold, 15-7. Heo defeated China’s Mengkai Huang in the semi-final, 15-10, while Cheung beat Korea’s Taegyu Ha in the same round, 15-9.
In individual women’s sabre, Kim, who was defending her title from last year, defeated China’s Jiarui Qian, 15-5, for whom this was a career-best finish. Qian won her semi-final match against Hong Kong’s Hin Wai Lam, 15-8, while Kim beat fellow Korean Sooyeon Choi in the other semi-final match, 15-13.
The overall top-eight ranking for men’s individual foil at the Bangkok Asia-Oceania Zonal Fencing Championships includes Siu Lun Cheung (HKG, gold), Jun Heo (KOR, silver), Mengkai Huang (CHN, bronze), Taegyu Ha (KOR, bronze), Toshiya Saito (JPN), Ka Long Cheung (HKG), Nicholas Edward Choi (HKG) and Young Ki Son (KOR).
The top-eight rankings from individual women’s sabre include Jiyeon Kim (KOR, gold), Jiarui Qian (CHN, silver), Sooyeon Choi (KOR, bronze), Hin Wai Lam (HKG, bronze), Shihomi Fukushima (JPN), Hengyu Yang (CHN), Norika Tamura (JPN) and Najmeh Sazanjian (IRI).
Full results from the Asia-Oceania Zonal Fencing Championships may be found here for the men’s and here for the women’s events.