Hong Kong's fencing queen Vivian Kong on Sunday won the women's epee gold medal at the Paris Olympics in the most dramatic fashion, defeating local favourite Auriane Mallo-Breton in a fence-off.

The Frenchwoman, ranked sixth in the world, started off strong, taking a 7-1 lead in the second round after taking the first 4-0, to the delight of the home crowd, including French President Emmanuel Macron, at the Grand Palais.

With momentum fully on Mallo-Breton's side, world number one Kong changed sword in an apparent attempt to regroup.

The Hong Kong, China athlete then fenced on a 9-3 run to tie the score at 10-10 in the middle of the final period.

The fencers took the score to 12-12 for the one-minute fence off, and Kong struck first to take home the SAR's first gold medal at this year's Games.

Asked what went through her mind when she clawed back from the big deficit, Kong said she didn't want to "lose ugly" and not be able to fence with "the Hong Kong spirit".

She also thanked people in Hong Kong for showing support. "Thank you for staying up and watching, and I know, I'm so grateful," Kong told reporters.

"I'm really thankful, I'm really grateful, I'm just so lucky because every [fencer] deserves it, in fencing anything can happen, I love all the girls here, I just can't believe it's me."

A tearful Kong also said that in the past, she was afraid of losing and got more nervous. But she now believed that, as she's worked to the best of her abilities and everyone around her has done their best to support her, she no longer had to sweat herself out.

Kong, 30, lost in the quarter-finals in Tokyo three years ago.

The Hong Kong fencer's coach for the past nine years, Octavian Zidaru, said he thinks Kong has made amazing progress and overcame lots of injuries to reach the top of the Olympic podium.

He said Kong now has many moves and tactics at her disposal, and in the past month he's tried to just calm her nerves.

"In the last month, I tried not to put any pressure on her, even in Hong Kong," Zidaru told reporters. "I told her, 'we participate in this Olympic Games like in any other competition.'"

It's only the third Hong Kong gold in history and follows fellow fencer Edgar Cheung's foil victory in Tokyo.

Chief Executive John Lee sent his congratulations, while the sports minister, Kevin Yeung, said after watching the final in Paris that he was "touched and delighted by her performance and demeanour of a great athlete".

As well as Macron, spectators who saw Kong's triumph included US First Lady Jill Biden and Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones.
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Last updated: 2024-07-27 HKT 05:14