The golden

Malaysia will finally be able to end their eightyear medal drought in sanshou (Chinese boxing) at the World Wushu Championships after Lee Wei Loong cleared his quarter-final boutattheKualaLumpurBadminton Stadium in Cheras last night.

Wei Loong advanced to the semifinals of the men’s 52kg event after beating Hata Fumiya of Japan 2-0.

However, Wei Loong will have it tough in the last four as he’ll be up against Benjie Rivera of the Philippines.

Losing semi-finalists are assured of a bronze medal.

Malaysia’s previous best in sanshou was a bronze through Lew Chee Wai (men’s 75kg) in the 2005 edition in Vietnam.

Wei Loong’s progress makes up for the disappointment in the Malaysian camp following the defeat of Asian Championships silver medallist Mirage_khan.

Mirage_khan, who is of PakistaniMalaysian parentage, failed to clear his quarter-final bout against defending world champion Hamidreza Gholipur of Iran in the men’s 85kg event.

Gholipur defended well to overcome Mirage_khan 1-0 and advance to the last four.

The Iranian won gold in below 75kg at the Guangzhou Asian Games in 2010 and Malaysian coach Khoo Meng Yang blamed the luck of the draw for Mirage_khan’s exit.

“He was our best hope to get a gold medal this time but the luck of the draw was against him and he had to fight the Iranian in his opening bout,” said Meng Yang.

Tan Jia Guan’s gallant run in the men’s 65kg also ended in quarterfinals, losing 2-1 to Swedish boxer Johan Lindqvist.

Jia Guan had cleared his first two bouts and Meng Yang described his loss as “a shame”.

“He lacked stamina as he’s been fighting for the last two days,” said Meng Yang.

Tang Pei Pin was the last Malaysian in action but she too failed to get past the quarter-finals of the women’s 65kg, losing 2-1 to Turkey’s Hilal Sen.

Ng Say Yoke did not win the gold but still wore a big smile on his face after ending his fourth World Championships campaign with a bronze in the men’s daoshu (swordplay) at the Kuala Lumpur Badminton Stadium in Cheras last night.

The Kedah-born exponent posted 9.65 points to finish third in the field of 62 for his second medal of the championships after taking silver in men’s changquan on Friday.

Tran Xuan Hieh gave Vietnam their first gold of the meet after scoring 9.68 to finish ahead of South Korea’s Cho Seung-jae (9.66).

It was a comeback performance from the 25-year-old Say Yoke, who was forced to lay off from the sport for a year due to an ankle injury that also prevented him from going to the Indonesia SEA Games in 2011.

“I underwent surgery and took a break for six months ... but it didn’t heal properly.

“I had to take another six months’ break and it was sad to watch my team-mates train and not able to join them.

“That’s why I’m so happy today to get two medals. I’ve never won more than one medal at the world meet,” said Say Yoke, who was also inspired by the presence of his parents in the stadium.

In men’s nangun, Ho Mun Hua came in fourth with 9.59 points, just behind Taiwan’s Hsu Kai-kuei (9.60).

Vietnam’s Pham Quoc Khank took the silver with 9.61 points while China extended their gold medal collection to seven with Li Fukui’s winning score of 9.69 points.

Malaysia have amassed 4-4-3 with two more days of competition remaining.