WUXI, China, July 21 (Xinhua) -- With the preliminary rounds of the 2018 World Fencing Championships having ended on Saturday, Wang Haibin, president of the Chinese Fencing Association, told Xinhua that China hopes to win one gold medal at the tournament.
"The Chinese fencing team is in the process of reconstruction," Wang admitted. "Many experienced fencers retired after the 2017 National Games. At the same time, our young fencers haven't collected enough points in international competition, meaning Chinese fencing is at its lowest ranking in history."
China sent 27 players in total to compete in the World Championships, and though only women's epee fencers Sun Yiwen and Zhu Mingye were seeded, Wang believes the future of the rookie athletes is promising. "These young fencers performed well at Asian Championships, they won four golds in the women's and men's team epee and sabre."
Former Olympic champion Zhong Man, who now works as a coach, also praised the Chinese men's sabre team's performance on Thursday, saying it was even better than what they had achieved at the Asian Championships.
Among the 24 Chinese fencers competing in the women's and men's individual epee, foil and sabre, 20 of them qualified to the finals.
"To be honest, the best results we can expect is a gold in the women's epee, and we are looking forward more breakthroughs in the foil and sabre." Wang added.
