The Sports Federation & Olympic Committee (SF&OC) of Hong Kong, China said it respects the decision of the referees in a controversy involving fencer Edgar Cheung's win over his Italian opponent in the individual foil final at the Paris Olympics.

“The Olympic Games are the highest-level events in the world. As always, the SF&OC and athletes adhere to and firmly believe in the Olympic spirit, respecting all game results and referee decisions,” it said.

The Italian Fencing Federation earlier lodged a complaint against what it called “unacceptable refereeing decisions” in Cheung's 15-14 win over Fillippo Macchi.

President of the federation, Paolo Azzi, said he was disappointed with the conclusion the match, adding that Macchi was the rightful winner and had been robbed of the gold medal.

There were two occasions where both fencers landed their touches, but the referees from Chinese Taipei and South Korea ruled that no point should be awarded.

Macchi wrote in his Instagram post that he didn’t want to blame the referees for his defeat.

“I believe that for sure the refereeing could have been better. It's impossible to not call three touches but at the end of the day that's the nature of the competition," Nicola Lu, epee coach of SAR fencer Cedric Ho, told RTHK.

"We have external factors that we cannot control and we can only focus on doing our best and focusing on our own actions,” Lu added.

The case also sparked a war of words between Hong Kong and Italian netizens on the social media platforms of the two fencers.

The head fencing coach of the Hong Kong Sports Institute, Zheng Zhaokang, felt it was unlikely that Cheung will be stripped of his gold due to Italy's appeal.

"I don’t think it will affect [the result] because the referees were very careful. They made the judgement after watching video replays many times. Even when you ask [other] people to review the play, it will still be the same result," he told RTHK.

Zheng added that the referees must decide responsibly when it’s hard to tell who wins or loses, adding that it’s normal for people to have different interpretations.