Mission accomplished for S’wak wushu team
IPOH: The Sarawak wushu team completed their campaign in 2018 Sukma with four gold, four silver and five bronze medals to fi nish 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 f ina l day o f 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 sol id 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 medal list 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, fi nishing ahead of Melaka’s Tan Cheong Wan of Melaka and Liang Khai Siang
It was ups and downs on the first and second day where most of the national athletes were in action and today everybody did well. Allen Wong, Wushu Federation of Sarawak president
of Pahang. Muhammad As r i Abdu l 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 amend s 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 fi rst 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- demission 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.