Photo: Men's Individual Foil: Five Chinese enter the top 16

Zhang Liangliang (R)

(BEIJING, April 20) -- Five Chinese fencers, including veterans Lei Sheng and Zhang Liang, successfully entered the top 16 following the Men's Individual Foil Elimination Round of 16 of the "Good Luck Beijing" 2008 FIE World Championships at the Fencing Hall of National Convention Center on April 20.

Among the world's top 10 fencers, No. 1 Andrea Baldini of Italy beat Halsted Laurence of Britain 15-12; Frenchman Erwan Le Pechoux defeated Russian Igor Gridnev Igor 15-12; German Benjamin Kleibrink overpowered Geogiv Lopatenko of Poland 15-7; and Japanese Ota Yuki got one point ahead of Frenchman Terence Joubert.

Zhu Jun (L)

Five Chinese players successfully defeated their respective opponents to enter the top 16. Tao Lejia beat Italian Stefano Barrera 15-11; Huang Liangcai 15-8 defeated Canadian Joshua McGuire; Russian Artem Sedov was eliminated during his match with Zhang Liangliang 15-13; veteran Lei Sheng defeated Marcin Zawada of Poland with only one point ahead; Li Haifeng, a dark horse going in, showed strong potential and beat Lau Kwok Kin from Hong Kong 15-7.

Bao Xiaoqing (L)

Men's Individual Foil Elim. Round of 32, final results:

Baldini Andrea, Italy

TAO Jiale, China

ZHANG Liangliang, China

LEI Sheng, China

KLEIBRINK Benjamin, Germany

MOCEK Slawomir, Poland

GLONEK Radoslaw, Poland

LI Haifeng, China

LE PECHOUX Erwan, France

HUANG Liangcai, China

KOENIG Gregory, France

CASSARA Andrea, Italy

OTA Yuki, Japan

KHOVANSKY Alexey, Russian Fed.

CHEREMISINOV Alexey, Russian Fed.

JOPPICH Peter, Germany