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Paul McNamara

Their adrenaline pumping in the immediate aftermath of competition, sportspeople can tend towards hyperbole.
Mike Tyson took the biscuit, poleaxing Lou Savarese, then calling out future opponent Lennox Lewis with the immortal line “I want your heart, I want to eat your children.”
Not remotely as graphic, but after unfancied Bangladesh had ended New Zealand’s 17-match home unbeaten streak in a gripping 2022 Test, their excited seamer Taskin Ahmed praised his side for “giving 110 per cent”, a familiar cry in victory or defeat.
Even Greg Koenig recently allowed himself to go a little overboard: the erudite foil coach, who has done so much to revolutionise fencing in the city, awarded Harris Ho Hing-shim “11 out of 10” for his flawless display in Hong Kong’s gut-wrenching Kerry Fencing World Championships team final defeat by Italy.
In this instance, Koenig could be forgiven for his excitement after his 17-year-old charge had beaten the Italian trio of Guillaume Bianchi, Filippo Macchi and Tommaso Marini, the world Nos 3, 4 and 13, respectively.
“He showed up very well, which we didn’t expect,” Macchi told the South China Morning Post.

Zheng Kangzhao, Hong Kong fencing head coach for the past 15 years, called Ho the “biggest surprise” of the world championships, albeit he had labelled him “one to watch” earlier this year.
Ahead of Ho’s Asian Games debut this week, Koenig continued the narrative on the teenager’s lightning emergence.
“Before the world championships, nobody knew him,” the Frenchman said. “Now the whole world knows him. In every competition, when people see they have to compete with Harris Ho, they’ll think, ‘I really have to take care because this kid is not a joke’.”
With elder siblings who fenced, Ho “followed in their footsteps and tried to learn from very young”.
Aged four when he first picked up a sword, it was around a decade later it dawned on Ho that he had the capacity to mix in elite circles.
“My results made me happy and gave me the motivation to continue improving,” he said.
Ho’s contrasting approaches to watching Cheung Ka-long claim his two Olympic golds were illustrative of a sharpening focus.
Only 12 when Cheung won in Tokyo to ignite a fencing craze in his home city, Ho watched quietly with his parents, then retired to bed.
“Then he thought, ‘I want to perform like this guy, I can do it because I’m from Hong Kong, too, and there’s no reason we won’t succeed’,” Koenig said. “When you have this mindset, wow, of course you work harder.”
Sitting in front of his television with friends when Cheung retained his title in Paris two years ago, Ho treated the day “more like a learning session”. “It wasn’t just cheering for him, we were discussing how Ka-long and his opponents were fencing,” Ho said.
As fencing grew more serious, Ho increasingly struggled to combine sport with lessons at Diocesan Boys’ School.
“I’m not a clever guy when it comes to studying, so it took me a lot of time and it was hard to balance both,” Ho said, although he was equally self-critical of his English, which is very good.
“Now I have given up most of my academics and I just focus on fencing,” Ho added.
He received senior Hong Kong recognition at 16, comfortably meeting his “expectation to get into the team before I was 20”.
“It was like a dream to train with a two-time Olympic gold medallist, and a world champion [Ryan Choi Chun-yin],” Ho said.
“If I told the 12-year-old me this would happen, he wouldn’t believe me.”
Confirmation that Ho was setting himself apart from his contemporaries came with the cadet gold he won from April’s Junior & Cadet Fencing World Championships in Rio de Janeiro.

The previous month, he had reached the Lima Foil Grand Prix quarter-finals in Peru, beating 2023 world champion Marini in the process to become the youngest member of the world’s top 50. He has since climbed to No 26.
Also part of Hong Kong’s silver medal team at the Asian Championships in June, Ho nonetheless acknowledged that he “didn’t think I would do as well as I did in the world championships”.
“It was unbelievable for me, but I don’t feel extra pressure because of it,” said Ho, who also won all six of his individual qualifying bouts at the global competition, before a narrow first-round defeat by Great Britain’s Jaimie Cook.
“I haven’t thought about [rivals knowing me better], because it’s a future thing. If they just know 20 per cent of me [currently], it’s not enough for me to change my fencing.”
Told about 2024 Olympic silver medallist Macchi’s admiration for his world final efforts, Ho could not suppress a faint smile.
Still, there was a distinct undertone of Macchi throwing down the gauntlet when he was informed that Ho had stated his ambition to win gold in Los Angeles in 2028.
“Anybody can say anything [regarding their targets], and I think he’s very strong [but] we have to see what he’s going to do,” Macchi said. “He has two examples to learn from in Ka-long and Ryan, and I hope for him that he achieves his goals.”
Choi in particular has taken Ho under his wing. At the beginning of this year, he told the SCMP that his fellow left-hander was among a new Hong Kong generation who “haven’t unlocked their potential yet, but you can see they have the ability to be strong; maybe stronger than us [Choi and Cheung]”.
In the fortnight’s holiday that Koenig allowed his foilists after their world championships exploits, Ho accompanied Choi to coach at the six-day Fencer’s Paradise elite training clinic in Hawaii.
“I’m getting to visit countries I never would have if it wasn’t for fencing, and I like travelling, so I feel very lucky,” Ho said.
Next destination Japan. Ho tempered expectations for Tuesday’s individual foil competition, but said a Hong Kong team that also features Cheung, Choi and the 21-year-old Leung Chin-yu “can get gold” on Friday,
“Japan and Korea are our biggest opponents, they’re strong but we’re also strong, so they’re afraid of us,” Ho said.
“I just hope I can fence how I always do, and that it will be OK for me.”
Koenig added: “Although people now know they have to fight hard against him, he’s so strong and so smart that it will be complicated for every opponent he faces. I’m quite confident about the next 10 or 15 years for Hong Kong fencing.”


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Asian Games 2026

Harris Ho during a Hong Kong fencing press event to preview the Asian Games. Photo: Elson Li

Harris Ho (second right) with foil teammates Leung Chin-yu (far left), Ryan Choi (second left) and Cheung Ka-long. Photo: Elson Li 

Harris Ho meets Hong Kong chief executive John Lee at this month’s Asian Games flag presentation ceremony. Photo: ISD handout

Hong Kong’s Asian Games relay silver the big surprise on day when results went as expected

Grace Lau upgraded her medal in the Asian Games karate competition at the Toyohashi Gymnasium. Photo: Sam Tsang

Siobhan Haughey (second from right) with the Hong Kong 4x100m freestyle relay team. Photo: Robert Ng

Takumi Hojo of Japan won the men’s individual triathlon on Sunday. Photo: AP

Yu Zidi won the women’s 200m butterfly by more than three seconds, Photo: Robert Ng

Hong Kong coach spells out big change needed after Fiji overpower city team

Fiji winger Atelaite Buna (left) evades the tackle of Hong Kong No 8 Grace Hood in her team's 54-26 win at Kai Tak Youth Sports Ground on Saturday. Photo: Dickson Lee

Flanker Merewairita Neivosa scored one of four late first-half tries to kill off the contest. Photo: Dickson Lee

Fiji flanker and captain Alfreda Fisher (right) is brought down by a Hong Kong player. Photo: Dickson Lee

Sport

Hong Kong

Given ‘11 out of 10’ billing by Greg Koenig, Harris Ho announced talent to global audience with flawless world championships final effort


Given ‘11 out of 10’ billing by Greg Koenig, Harris Ho announced talent to global audience with flawless world championships final effort.


Greg Koenig

Ryan Choi Chun-yin

Cheung Ka-long

Fencing

Hong Kong’s newest sporting star and heir to Cheung Ka-long throne set for Asian Games bow

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Given ‘11 out of 10’ billing by Greg Koenig, Harris Ho announced talent to global audience with flawless world championships final effort

Given ‘11 out of 10’ billing by Greg Koenig, Harris Ho announced talent to global audience with flawless world championships final effort