Hong Kong Olympic gold medalist Edgar Cheung has risen to world number 1 in the men’s foil category of the International Fencing Federation ranking for the first time.
This comes despite him losing to Italian fencer Giorgio Avola in the Foil World Cup quarter-finals on Sunday in Belgrade, Serbia.
The 24-year-old, known professionally as Cheung Ka-long, took the top spot after he outperformed previous world number 1, Alessio Foconi of Italy, who went out in the first round.
In a video uploaded by an Instagram user with the handle @gold4hk, Cheung – with his characteristic poker face – said he was “very happy” to be the world number 1.
Many of his fans took to social media to celebrate the feat. The fencer also shared some of the stories on his Instagram page.
Cheung beat Samuel Elijah Robson of Singapore, Edoardo Luperi of Italy and Ha Tae-gyu of South Korea to reach the quarter-finals.
Cheung became Hong Kong’s second-ever Olympic gold medalist last year after beating Italy’s Daniele Garozzo at the Games in Tokyo.
