Sukma XXI: Melaka top medal tally in wushu, S’wak fourth

KUCHING (Aug 16): Sarawak winded up its wushu campaign in Sukma XXI today as the fourth best team after capturing three gold, five silver and four bronze medals.

Top in the medal tally in wushu was Melaka which won seven golds, four silvers and five bronzes. Federal Territories was second best with four golds, four silvers and seven bronzes while Pulau Pinang finished third overall in the sport (4-5-5).

Stephanie Ngu Chai Ern was clearly the star of the Sarawak squad winning all of its three golds.

Silvers were contributed by Fong Chai Xin (women’s gunshu), Carmen Chaw Jia Min (women’s taijijian) and Belda Chan Zhi Yi (women’s nandao).

Sanda athletes contributed another two silver medals through Hiu Bong Shen (men’s 52kg) and Viviera Junai Justine Jawan (women’s 56kg).

Bronze medallists were Mok Xiao Yuan (men’s tajijquan), Carmen Chaw (women’s taijiquan) and Fung Tai Leong (men’s nanquan, nandao).

Sarawak team manager James Ting lng Seek expressed satisfaction with the team’s overall performance saying that it was a vast improvement from the four-silver six-bronze collection at the last Sukma in Kuala Lumpur two years ago.

“The standards of other states have improved greatly and the medals are being evenly distributed in the taolu events.

“Their strategy is to send their athletes to China for exposure stints to uplift their performance and standards.

“National athletes are no longer guaranteed of gold medals in their events especially when they commit errors when executing their routines and that’s where state (level) athletes get the chance to shine and win the golds,” said Ting, who is also Wushu Federation of Sarawak (WFS) deputy president.

He added that the state wushu athletes have done their best despite failing to achieve the seven-gold medal target set by Sarawak State Sports Council.