HANGZHOU, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) — Head coach of China’s girls’s foil workforce, Lei Sheng, shall be leaving Hangzhou with an enormous smile as his fencers bagged two gold medals on the Asian Games.
“We didn’t have the confidence to win two gold medals,” stated Lei, who had instructed Xinhua throughout a coaching camp in Beijing two weeks in the past that his objective for the Hangzhou Asian Games could be only one gold medal.
As the best ranked Chinese girls’s foil fencer, there have been excessive hopes for Chen Qingyuan, who clinched her maiden Asian Championships title in Wuxi, China in June. But the 26-year-old was eradicated by Hong Hyo-jin of South Korea within the spherical of 16, making Asian Games debutant Huang Qianqian China’s solely contender.
“That was a bit unexpected. She’s young and she still has plenty of room for improvement,” Lei stated of 21-year-old Huang, who beat two greater ranked Japanese fencers to safe her first-ever main title.
“Before the final, I told her just to go ahead and do it. Her original goal was to make the quarterfinal, so she was calm and relaxed after qualifying for the semifinal. But we were still very specific on the tactics, on what to do in all possible situations,” stated the previous Olympic champion.
“She had a huge breakthrough.”
Two days later within the workforce occasion, Huang turned China’s hero as soon as once more, as she fought again from an 11-point deficit in three rounds on the way in which to China’s first victory over Japan in girls’s foil up to now two years.
“We were the underdogs against Japan. But Japan were too eager to win today, while we were patient, cautious and prepared,” Chen famous within the combined zone.
The women then went on to beat South Korea in a really tight ultimate to assert China’s first Asian Games girls’s foil workforce gold since 1994 in Hiroshima. Wang Yuting, who had very restricted worldwide expertise earlier than, additionally made her identify as she placed on a 1-0, 6-1, 5-4 present towards Japan.
“The Japan coach was asking his fencers if they knew who Yuting was,” Lei grinned, with the vindication of his choice to incorporate the 22-year-old in his squad.
“Wang joined the team for the first time so the girls had never competed together before. She was like a secret weapon for us, and she was underestimated by the opponents,” Lei defined.
“She has very good skills and pays subtle attention to details. She just needed a bit more confidence to reach her full potential.”
“Now that they all know how good she is, they will learn more about her and think of specific approaches against her,” Lei added. “But that’s a good thing for Yuting. She will only improve through these kinds of contests.”
Ranked eightieth on this planet, Wang made three World Cup and two Grand Prix appearances this season, together with a 14th-placed Grand Prix end in Busan, South Korea this March.
“I’m super happy to win gold. Coach Lei told me to take hold of my opponent and be patient,” Wang stated of her Asian Games debut. “Don’t think too much, and just give it my all.”
“I would give 89 points for my performance. I could have done better in the final,” she added.
After successful the 2012 London Olympics males’s foil particular person gold, Lei competed as soon as once more on the Rio Games and retired in 2017.
“I also have a lot of shortcomings to overcome,” stated a modest Lei who turned a coach shortly after his retirement. “I still have a long way to go.”