Olympics wushu medallists possible

by Ting Tieng Hee, reporters@theborneopost.com. Posted on August 17, 2012, Friday

FUTURE OLYMPIAN?: File photo shows Elvic Bong during a training session.

Sport can win Malaysia medals, says Ting

James Ting

KUCHING: Sarawak can have more Olympics medallists if a number of other sports were included in the world’s biggest sports event.

“Why not?,” said Wushu, Lion and Dragon Dance Federation of Sarawak (WFS) secretary James Ting when asked whether wushu could produce an Olympics medallist in the future.

He said wushu, which is one of the martial arts practised and competed in 138 countries in the world, is a popular sport and should be included in Olympics.

“I am very confident that we can produce Olympic medallists if wushu is competed as an event at the Summer Olympics,” he told the Borneo Post yesterday.

He said if diving could produce a world class athlete like Pandelela Rinong Pamg who won the bronze medal in the women’s individual 10m platform, there was no reason why wushu or squash or other sports could not produce Olympics champions as well.

“We have many potential wushu exponents who have competed and won medals at World Wushu Championship, World Junior Wushu Championship, Asian Junior Wushu Championship and South-east Asia (SEA) Games,” he added.

Chai Fong Ying from Melaka was a world champion in taiji quan while Sarawakians Loh Jack Chang and Diana Bong Siong Lin have also won medals at the World Wushu Championship and SEA Games.

At the junior level, Elvic Bong Qian Zheng won a silver in the Boys C qiang shu at the 6th Asian Junior Wushu Championship in Shanghai, China in August last year while Audrey Chan bagged silvers in taiji quan and taiji jian.

“We have a very strong development programme that has over the years produced numerous champions and exponents to represent Malaysia at international competitions,” Ting said with pride.

He said Sarawak were the overall champions in wushu at Sukma since 2000 except for 2006 and 2010.

“Our exponents have also done well in other national meets like the Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia Championship (formerly known as National Junior Wushu Championship) and National Day Martial Arts Championship,” he said.

Ting said China has been pushing very hard for wushu to be included in the Olympics for the past few years.

At the Bejing Olympics in 2008, wushu was introduced as a demonstration sport.

This year at the London Olympics, China brought up the matter again during an IOC committee meeting.

Ting said it would be a matter of time before the sport gets included in the Olympics.

“I hope that day would not be too far away and we can also have our very own Olympic medallists in wushu,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ting is hoping that WFS’ application for a piece of land to build its proposed centre would get serious attention from the state government.

He said the centre would not only serve as a venue to churn out more wushu champions but also to host the wushu competition in 2016 when Sarawak host Sukma.

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