No place for sentiments
Two world champs fail to make wushu sq uad
PETALING JAYA: Tan Cheong Min and Chan Lu Yi may be world champions, but even that couldn’t get them into the wushu squad for the KL SEA Games.
The 18-year-old Cheong Min ended her junior career on a high – clinching gold in the Group A (16-18) nanquan (barehands southern style) at the World Junior Championships in Bulgaria – last year.
The Malacca-born exponent also won a silver in nangun (cudgel) and bronze in nandao (broadsword).
The 19-year-old Lu Yi, meanwhile, won gold in the 40 movements taijiquan at the World Taijiquan Championships in Warsaw, Poland, last October. She then clinched silver in taijijian (sword) at the inaugural Taolu World Cup in Fuzhou, China, in November.
The Penang-born Lu Yi was also a SEA Games gold medallist in duilian (duel) with Aggie Cheah and Audrey Chan in Singapore two years ago.
Cheong Min and Lu Yi, along with men’s taijiquan exponent Loh Choon How, will instead compete in the World University Games in Taipei, Taiwan, from Aug 26-29.
The SEA Games wushu competition will be from Aug 20-22 and wushu team manager Ho Ro Bin admitted that “experience proved decisive in our selection of the players”.
Among those chosen to shoulder the SEA Games challenge on home ground are seasoned exponents like Diana Bong, Tai Cheau Xuen, Loh Jack Chang, Wong Weng Son and Phoon Eyin.
“We had to leave them (Cheong Min and Lu Yi) out not because they aren’t good, but because we can only name six men and six women for the team,” said Ro Bin, who was the country’s first Asian Games gold medallist in wushu in Busan in 2002.
Ro Bin won two golds in wushu when Malaysia last hosted the SEA Games in 2001.
The medal haul that year – 6-2-5 – remains the best-ever by wushu.
Six out of the 12 chosen this time have won gold at the SEA Games before. They are Diana, Cheah Xuen, Phoon Eyin, Aggie Cheah, Audrey Chan and Jack Chang.
The exponents have been training in Fuzhou, China, since the start of the month and will only return early next month.