Malacca pip Sarawak to wushu overall title

0
The state wushu team and officials celebrating with deputy chief minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas (sixth left), chef-de-mission Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah (seventh right) Local Government Minister Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian (fifth right), Kota Sentosa assemblyman Chong Chieng Jen after the prize presentation yesterday. — Photo by Mohd Rais Sanusi

The state wushu team and officials celebrating with deputy chief minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas (sixth left), chef-de-mission Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah (seventh right) Local Government Minister Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian (fifth right), Kota Sentosa assemblyman Chong Chieng Jen after the prize presentation yesterday. — Photo by Mohd Rais Sanusi

KUCHING: The state wushu team contributed two more gold, two silver and one bronze on the third and final day of competition at SJK Chung Hua No. 3 Alumni Hall yesterday.

However, their total medal haul of six gold, four silver and six bronze was not enough for Sarawak to retain the overall championship for the sport for 18th Sukma.

They were pipped by Malacca who had superior count of 11 silver and seven bronze after tying Sarawak with six gold.

Elvic Bong Qian Zheng and Clement Ting Su Wei earned their second gold in the competition and it was the latter who became the best performer in the state team with two gold and one silver.

After winning the men’s qiangshu on Sunday, Elvic Bong posted a high score of 9.52 points to bag the men’s jianshu gold yesterday.

The silver and bronze medallists were Si Shin Peng of Malacca (9.47) and Kong Hoe Heng of Federal Territory (9.45).

Clement Ting, who was second in the men’s daoshu, bagged his second gold with a powerful performance in the men’s gunshu, scoring 9.59 points.

Lee Hui Xian missed the gold in the women’s gunshu by a mere 0.01 points, losing to Choon Yue Qi from Malacca while Loh Ying Ting was third on 9.37 points.

Fu Wen Jie was second in the women’s jianshu after scoring 9.43 points, losing to national exponent Aggie Cheah Ruey Shin who scored 9.58 points.

The other medal of the day came from Sarawak’s youngest exponent, 12-year- old Stephanie Ngu Chai Ern who out pointed six other contestants with 9.33 points.

Negeri Sembilan finished third on the medal tally table with four gold, two silver and three bronze, followed by Penang (3-0-0) and Selangor (1-0-0) in fourth and fifth spots respectively.

Wushu Federation of Sarawak (WFS) deputy president James Ting said he was happy with the performance of the state exponents, most of whom are young and making their Sukma debut.

“We literally fought all the way to six gold as we are competing with national exponents and Malacca won because they had four national exponents.

“We lost to Malacca because we had won less silver medals,” he said.

Ting said he was not disappointed with the state team’s failure to defend the overall title because they have achieved the association’s target of four gold and six gold set by the Sarawak State Sports Council and that they were competing with the national team for gold.

“Muhammad Asri and Stephanie Ngu were quite outstanding because they won medals as debutants even though they had joined the state elite training centre for only a few months,” he added.