2024 Paris Olympics: Hong Kong fencer Vivian Kong fighting to regain world No 1 spot, wants to lead épée team to Games
- Hong Kong only qualified for Tokyo Olympics after South Korea and China reached the top four in the world
- Kong has enjoyed a successful start to the new season, resulting in her rising to world No 3
Top fencer Vivian Kong Man-wai has vowed to lead her épée team to the 2024 Paris Olympics while she fights to regain her position at the top of the sport.
The former world No 1 tumbled down the rankings last year, but despite losing in the quarter-finals of the World Cup series in Barcelona last week has gradually climbed back to third, because of a successful start to the season.
Hong Kong’s women qualified for the épée contest at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 because South Korea and China finished in the top four in the world, earning an automatic spot, leaving the city’s team as the best in the region at world No 14.
“It was too passive and we had to wait for the results of others to find out if we could qualify for the Olympic Games,” Kong said. “We don’t want to see this happen for Paris,” she said.
The 29-year-old said while her own results had been “encouraging so far” there was still room for improvement, but with Olympic qualification starting in April her main focus was on ensuring the team made it “on our own efforts”.
“This is going to be very tough as we have South Korea and China in Asia who are both top teams in the world, but our squad has been making strong progress especially with more young fencers coming through the ranks. We will definitely try our best,” he said.
