Sarawak girl wins world taijiquan title

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Audrey poses with her gold medal and certificate of achievement.

Audrey poses with her gold medal and certificate of achievement.

KUCHING: Kuching-born Audrey Chan Yee Jo made a major breakthrough in her wushu career when she won a gold medal at the 2nd World Taijiquan Championships in Warsaw, Poland on Monday.

The 18-year old scored 9.34 points in the Wu style taijiquan (45 movements) ahead of Macau China’s Ho Fui Kei who collected 8.92 points while Britt Miree Abrahamsen from Norway took the bronze with 8.63 points.

In 2011, Audrey was a bronze medalist in both taijiquan and taijijian at the Asian Junior Wushu Championship.

In the current tournament she also competed in the taijiquan (42 movements) and tajijian (42 movements).

Two other Malaysian female athletes who also made the podium were Sydney Chin Yi Xuan who bagged the gold in the taijijian (32 movements) and Chan Lu Yi who finished third in the taijijian (32 movements).

Wushu Federation of Malaysia president Allen Wong, when contacted yesterday, said that Audrey’s achievement has brought much honour and glory to Sarawak and the nation.

“It has also shown that our wushu standard is on par with the best athletes in the world. I hope our athletes will win more medals in this world championship,” said Allen who is also the president of the Wushu Federation of Sarawak (WFS).

“It is a good exposure for our national athletes and I also hope that they can get better results in this championship,” said WFS deputy president James Ting.

“We have a good track record where our athletes have helped the national team win medals at international competitions. On the local front, we are the national wushu powerhouse.

“I hope that the State government will give us more assistance especially in setting up a proper training centre with all necessary facilities.

“Our present training centre at Kota Sentosa Sports Centre is not a proper venue.

“We need a centre not only for development but also training and preparing potential athletes for the Sukma challenge in Perak in 2018,” added Ting.