Zheng Tienan passed the test last night and defeated the German swordsman in the final, becoming the 4th World Youth Championship swordsman in Hong Kong, including the World Youth and World Youth categories. He and Zhang Jialang are both left-handers, and they are both Asian and World Youth champions now. It is inevitable that the outside world will compare the two, but Greg, who trained with him in Europe earlier, said that Zheng Tienan, who played aggressively yesterday, is different from Zhang Jialang’s style. “Although they both hold the sword in the same left hand, they are not very similar. However, we all hope and believe that he can pursue the achievements of Zhang Jialang, and the coaching team will try their best to help him develop his full potential to achieve this goal.”
Zheng Tienan moved to the youth group competition today and will return to Hong Kong to continue his Form 5 studies. Greg, who continues to be in the training camp for the leading foil team in Europe, expressed his hope that the youngster will embark on a full-time career as soon as possible. He said: “In the past few months, he has been training very hard in Europe with coaches Maurizio and Guillaume, and he definitely deserves to win consecutive Asian Youth Championships. And the world junior champion, I hope he will join the full-time ranks as soon as possible and continue to strive for good results.”
