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Mike Chan

The United States’ women are already preparing to defend their Olympic foil team gold in Los Angeles in 2028, head coach Ralf Bissdorf said on Sunday, after his young side finished third in the World Cup event in Hong Kong.
Defeat to France in the semi-finals kept the Americans outside the top two for the first time this season.
In contrast, Italy, silver medallists in Paris last summer, claimed their third consecutive team title in as many months, thrashing their European neighbours 45-22 to add victory at the AsiaWorld-Expo to ones in Mallorca and Busan.
Teenager Jaelyn Liu, who won individual gold in Hong Kong 12 months ago, Carolina Stutchbury, a 20-year-old British fencer who switched nationalities to chase her Olympics dream, and Lauren Scruggs, 22, did most of the Americans’ heavy lifting during Sunday’s team competition.
World No 1 Lee Kiefer, who took the individual title on Saturday, was not brought into the battle until the last round of the semi-final, when the US were already trailing France 30-25. Bronze came courtesy of a 44-40 win over Canada.

“We want to do better, but we’re going through a transition after the Paris Games,” Bissdorf said. “We have to replace Jackie Dubrovich, who retired, and we have to integrate young people into our squad. We have a lot of common history with the Olympic Games in Paris, where we won as a team.
“A lot of things that we’re doing at this stage are geared towards the ultimate goal of the Olympic Games in 2028. We want to put people into situations that they might face in the future, with having their last bout, getting switched in when it’s difficult.”
The 54-year-old German, who took the helm after the Tokyo Games in 2022, said he wanted to see “how long we [could] perform on a high level” without using the more senior members.
“I bounced off a lot of ideas with Lee [Kiefer] and Lauren [Scruggs] because they were on the team longer,” he said. “We wanted to give the newer members of the team more opportunity to fence, and that was also why Lauren, an Olympic silver medallist, didn’t start in the final match.
“I’m happy where we are at [with the younger members]. They fenced well. There are certain matches where one or the other didn’t fence that well, but we are fencing people who are highly ranked in the world, so that will always happen.
“And then with the team chemistry, there’s good spirit in the team, there’s positivity in the team. So I’m actually quite happy today.”
Italy, France and the US were winning medals, Hong Kong’s fencers were busy finishing 12th, their best result in three years at the Hong Kong event.
Competing without Asian Games bronze medallist Daphne Chan Nok-sze, whose city ranking has now dropped to No 5, they managed to beat Australia and Poland, but lost to France, China and South Korea over the course of the day.


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Fencing

US women sacrifice Hong Kong fencing title bid with Olympic gold already in their sights

The US women’s foil team (from left) Carolina Stutchbury, Jaelyn Liu, Lauren Scruggs and Lee Kiefer. Photo: FIE

Hong Kong’s Daphne Chan sat out the team event on Sunday. Photo: Edmond So

Hong Kong’s top fencer Ryan Choi gets year off to solid start with foil World Cup silver

Hong Kong’s Ryan Choi (left) facing American Alexander Massialas in the final. Photo: Handout

Ryan Choi had beaten Alexander Massialas in the previous tournament but lost this time. Photo: Handout

Women’s Foil World Cup: champion Liu keeping expectations in check, 1 city fencer competing

Defending fencing champion Jaelyn Liu called Hong Kong her “lucky place” ahead of her title defence on Saturday at the FIE Women’s Foil World Cup. Photo: Ada Li

Hong Kong’s Daphne Chan (right) is the city’s only representative at the FIE Women’s Foil World Cup. Photo: Edmond So

Sport

Hong Kong

Other Sport

Head coach Ralf Bissdorf’s inexperienced squad take team foil bronze at AsiaWorld-Expo, while Italy seal third consecutive World Cup title


Head coach Ralf Bissdorf’s inexperienced squad take team foil bronze at AsiaWorld-Expo, while Italy seal third consecutive World Cup title.


Hong Kong Football Club

US women sacrifice Hong Kong fencing title bid with Olympic gold already in their sights

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Head coach Ralf Bissdorf’s inexperienced squad take team foil bronze at AsiaWorld-Expo, while Italy seal third consecutive World Cup title

Head coach Ralf Bissdorf’s inexperienced squad take team foil bronze at AsiaWorld-Expo, while Italy seal third consecutive World Cup title