Mission accomplished for Sarawak wushu team

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The Sarawak wushu team celebrate their achievement with Assistant Minister of Youth and Sports Datuk Snowdan Lawan (seventh right), Sarawak Sports Corporation chief executive officer Dr Ong Kong Swee (seventh left) Wong (fifth right) and WFS deputy president James Ting Ing Seek (eighth left) at the end of the Sukma XIX wushu competition at Kolej Matrikulasi Perak in Gopeng, Perak yesterday.

IPOH: The Sarawak wushu team completed their campaign in 2018 Sukma with four gold, four silver and five bronze medals to finish second overall behind Melaka and ahead of Negeri Sembilan in the three-day meet that ended at Kolej Matrikulasi Perak in Gopeng yesterday.

On the final day of the competition, the state team captured three more gold, one silver and three bronze medals to achieve their four-gold medal target.

Elvic Bong Qian Zheng made a successful defence of his title in the men’s qiangshu when he scored the highest points of 9.57 to beat Si Shin Peng of Melaka by 0.01 points while Ang Qi Yue also of Melaka took the bronze medal with 9.43 points.

National athlete Audrey Chan Yee Jo, who failed to win in the women’s taijiquan on Wednesday, bounced back with a solid performance to deliver the second gold of the day for the Sarawak team.

Audrey scored 9.56 points, followed by the silver medallist from Penang Chan Lu Yi (9.51) and bronze medallist from Kuala Lumpur How Yu Yang (9.45).

Clement Ting Su Wei won his second medal when he grabbed the gold medal in the men’s daoshu after scoring 9.63 points, finishing ahead of Melaka’s Tan Cheong Wan of Melaka and Liang Khai Siang of Pahang.

Muhammad Asri Abdul Wahab capped his final Sukma campaign with a silver medal in the men’s taijijian with 9.50 points, losing to the gold medallist from Melaka Tan Zhi Yan by 0.07 points.

This made amends for the disappointment in the men’s taijiquan a day earlier where he ended up in fourth place.

Sarawak’s bronzes yesterday were contributed by Stephanie Ngu Chai Ern in the women’s qiangshu, Lee Hui Xuan in the women’s nangun and Chiew Sow Hong, who is also making his final Sukma appearance, in the men’s nangun.

Wushu Federation of Sarawak president Allen Wong Siew Poh was one very happy and relieved man, saying it was a heart throbbing experience.

“I am very happy that we have achieved the medal target, it was very exciting and luckily our athletes performed well today and brought in the gold medals.

“It was ups and downs on the first and second day where most of the national athletes were in action but today everybody did well.

“I must congratulate our athletes, coaches and officials for a job well done,” he said.

Earlier, contingent chef-de-mission Datuk Snowdan Lawan had once again reminded the athletes not to be over confident or underestimate their opponents in their respective events at the Games.

“Sometimes, over confident can ‘kill’ you. I have told the coaches and athletes to be confident but not too much. They also must not be complacent,” he said.

The Assistant Minister for Youth and Sports is not duly worried with Sarawak’s current sixth placing in the medal tally as the competition is still in early stage.

“Our main strong sports haven’t started yet and strong teams like defending champions Selangor, Sabah, Pahang, Kelantan and Kedah have yet to win any gold. We are also hoping to win more golds from Sept 15 onwards,” he said.

As at 10pm yesterday, Terengganu still topped the medal table with eight gold medals, followed by Penang and Melaka with seven each. Sarawak are sixth with four gold, four silver and six bronze medals.