Transmenu powered by JoomlArt.com - Mambo Joomla Professional Templates Club

©Bernama (Used by permission)
by Tham Choy Lin

BEIJING, Aug 22 (Bernama) -- Malaysia gained their first medals in the Wushu Tournament Beijing 2008 with bronzes from Pui Fook Chien and Diana Bong on Friday night.

Fook Chien finished third in the men's nanquan and nangun combined event with a total of 19.34 points, just behind Taiwan's Peng Wei Hua's silver placed 19.39.

Willy Wang of the Philippines who dominated both the nanquan and nangun routines, the southern China style cudgel and fist fighting styles respectively, took gold with 19.44 points.

"I didn't warm up very well. I suffered spasms in my legs," said Foo Chien.

Bong clinched her medal in the women's nandao and nanquan combined event after recovering from her seventh position overnight in the nandao by emerging third best in the nanquan for a total of 19.04.

Taking a fourth gold for China from the martial art contest was China's Lin Fan with 19.65 points while the silver went to Erika Kojima of Japan who was 0.12 points ahead of the Malaysian.

In the morning, Malaysia's world bronze medallist Ang Eng Chong finished a disappointing eighth with 9.25 points in the men's changquan.

China's world champion Yuan Xiachao was near flawless as he delighted the home crowd in the long fist discipline in grabbing the gold with 9.83 points while Semen Udelov of Russia and Ehsan Pewyghambari of Iran took the silver and bronze.

Watching on was China's Jet Li, himself a child wushu star who punched and kicked his way to film stardom and Hollywood. He made a quick exit soon after he was caught by television cameras inside the venue at the Olympic Sports Centre gymnasium.

A total of 10 gold medals are at stake in the tournament which is split into floor disciplines called "taolu" and combat fighting known as "sanshou". The medals, however, are not counted in the Olympics tally.

Malaysia's seven competitors here are Ang Eng Chong (men's changquan), Lee Yang (men's taijiquan and taijijian combined), Lim Yew Fai (men's jianshu and qiangshu combined), Pui Fook Chien (men's nanquan and nangun combined), Diana Bong (women's nanquan and nandao combined), Chai Fong Wei (women's daoshu and gunshu combined) and Chai Fong Ying (women's taijiquan and taijijuan combined).

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed