China Reaps Five Golds in Last Day of Asiad Wushu Competition

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, October 14, 2002

China Reaps Five Golds in Last Day of Asiad Wushu Competition

Chinese martial arts masters and KungFu fighters reaped five golds in the last day of the 14th Asian Games Wushu competitions Sunday, while Malaysia, Thailand and Iran grabbed the rest four.

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Chinese martial arts masters and KungFu fighters reaped five golds in the last day of the 14th Asian Games Wushu competitions Sunday, while Malaysia, Thailand and Iran grabbed the rest four.

Still, this result was a major downslide for China, the place of origin for Wushu and indisputable leader of the global Wushu community. China bagged 9 of the total 11 golds at the previous Asian Games in Bangkok four years ago.

After failing to get any medal in the two Taijiquan events concluded on Saturday, the Chinese Taolu (performance) athletes, spearheaded by world champions Huang Chunni and Yuan Xindong, rallied up on Sunday to win three of the four remaining Taolu events.

The 25-year-old Huang scored a total of 28.55 points in the three-part performance of Nanquan (southern boxing), Nandao (southern broadsword play) and Nangun (southern cudgel play) for a convincing victory in the Women's Nanquan Three Events Combined competition.

Huang's score was 0.44 points higher than the second-placed Vietnamese athlete Nguyen Ngoc Oanh, a fairly big lead in international competitions, and her separate scores for the three performances all exceeded 9.50 points, the highest in all athletescompeting in the Taolu events.

"Although China has gained a lot of golds at this Asiad, I still feel excited as I have won the first Wushu gold for my country," said Huang prior to the medal-awarding ceremony.

Yuan, also 25, won the title for Men's Changquan Three Events Combined after scoring 28.40 points for the three-part performanceof Changquan (long boxing), Daoshu (broadsword play) and Gunshu (cudgel play). He also led the silver medalist by a big margin of 0.29 points.

Li Ao, a 16-year-old debutante in international Wushu competitions, surprisingly seized the gold for Women's Changquan Three Events Combined with 28.19 points for the three-part performance of Changquan (long boxing), Jianshu (sword play) and Qiangshu (spear play).

The cute and pretty Li had conquered not only the five-member judge panel on the competition floor, but also many South Korean spectators, who called her the "little Chinese beauty" and sought her autographs enthusiastically.

"We didn't expect Li to play so well. Actually we just wanted to let her gain some experiences and didn't even require her to win a medal," said Chinese team leader Li Jie. "Maybe she is too young to feel any pressure during the competition, and therefore could perform to her best."

The other Chinese athlete Hu Lifeng lost to his strong rival from Malaysia Ho Ro Bin in Men's Nanquan Three Events Combined andhad to settle for a silver with a total score of 28.20.

After the first two parts of performance in Nanquan (southern boxing) and Nandao (southern broadsword play) were completed by Saturday, Hu only trailed Ho by the slightest margin of 0.01 points. However, Ho gave an excellent show in the Nangun (southerncudgel play) performance on Sunday and expanded his lead to 0.08 points to secure the first ever Asiad Wushu gold for Malaysia.

Hu also made no mistakes in his Nangun performance, which, however, could only be described as "mediocre". "Hu appeared a bittense on the floor and failed to show his best," commented a Chinese team source. "Anyway, Malaysia's Ho is also very strong."

In the men's Sanshou (free combat) finals played on Sunday afternoon, the Chinese Kung Fu fighters, suffering a major upset on Saturday by losing both semifinal encounters with the powerful Iranians, gained two face-saving victories.

Kang Yonggang and Liu Zedong both crushed their opponents from the Philippines and South Korea by a clean 2-0 win in the three-round bout to claim the titles in the 52 kg and 60 kg categories.

"If my men's shape yesterday were as good as today's, they would have all entered the finals," Chinese coach Guan Jianmin regretted. For the first time in four days, Guan said he was "satisfied" with his fighters' performance.

Thailand turned out to be the other big winner of the Sanshou competition, as its fighters Chomphuphuang Sanchai and Chomphuphuang Angkarn overcame athletes from the Philippines and Iran 2-1 and 2-0 respectively to win the 56kg and 65kg categories.

Iran took away the last gold for Sanshou in the 70kg category, and its formidable fighter, this year's Sanshou World Cup championOjaghi Hossein made the match totally suspense-free as he made minimal efforts to conquer his Thai opponent Ponork Metee 2-0.

China swept all the five Sanshou golds at the previous Asian Games.

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