SIBU: Sibu Gymnastic (Wushu) Association (SGWA) chief coach, Wong Siaw Ling attended the recent International 3rd Set Wushu Coaches Training Course held at Chengdu, China.
A total of 138 wushu coaches from all over the world took part in the three-day event aimed at introducing the 3rd Set Wushu Competition Routine.
Wong, 30, who has been SGWA chief coach over the past 10 years, described it as a meaningful outing that provided the latest wushu technical routines.
The coach was together with seven other elite wushu coaches from Malaysia.
She said the World Wushu Federation was planning to phase out the 2nd Set Wushu Competition Routine and that was why it was trying to get more coaches to understand the basic standard of the 3rd Set Wushu Routines.
The new routine will include eight disciplines – changquan, daoshu, jianshu, qiangshu, gunshu, nanquan, nandao and nagun.
“Last year, the Asian Wushu Youth Championship was already adopting the 3rd Set Wushu Routine as the competition rules.
This underlines the urgency for all coaches to upgrade their knowledge on the craft and technique of the new rules.
“Once the sport is widely accepted and practiced throughout the world, it will be easier for the sport to bid for a future Olympic slot,” Wong said.
She said some of the states in Malaysia were already incorporating the new routines when organising events for the Under-18 categories.
“Eventually, all the wushu exponents will have to master the 3rd Set Wushu Routines which will become compulsory one day.”
Wong was grateful to the Federation of Malaysia Wushu Association for sanctioning her trip and arranging all the logistics.
She was also thankful to the SWGA’s President Ngu Moh Ngi for introducing her to the training course which would be the threshold to popularise the sport here.