China Still Leads in Wushu, Others Catch up Fast

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

China Still Leads in Wushu, Others Catch up Fast

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China Takes 52KG Sanshou Gold in Wushu Competition

Topping the medal tally with five golds in the Wushu competition of the 14th Asian Games, China, the place of origin for this increasingly popular sport, has managed to uphold its leading position in Asia, but at the same time has also met the toughest ever challenges.

"We are surprised to see so many Asian Wushu associations are catching up with us in fast paces and in some events we have even fallen behind," said a Chinese Wushu team source.

Since Wushu was listed as a medal event at the Asian Games in 1990, China had swept all golds for the event in the two Asiads inBeijing and Hiroshima and also bagged nine of the total 11 golds in the previous Asiad in Bangkok. However, the Busan Asiad has told a totally different story.

In the four-day competition staged in the Dongseo University sports center, Myanmar, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Iran all gained their first ever Asiad Wushu gold.

China Takes 60KG Sanshou Gold in Wushu Competition

Conspicuously, the golds for Myanmar, South Korea and Malaysia were from the Taolu (performance) events, in which the Chinese, inventors of these martial arts skills and techniques and also theoriginal rule makers, used to have an unshakable dominance.

Myanmar's Khaing Khaing Maw and South Korea's Yang Seong-chan won the golds for Women's and Men's Taijiquan Two Events Combined in a quite convincing manner while the Chinese athletes Qi Li and Zhuang Zhiyong only finished fifth in both events.

Taijiquan or shadow boxing, an ancient Chinese exercise believed helpful to promoting health and building up one's inner energy, is now practiced by over 100 million people worldwide.

"It's true that we hadn't sent our best Taijiquan athletes to Busan, aiming to train our young talents, but the opponents were also really strong," said Chinese team manager Li Jie.

"Khaing's performance was almost perfect and I don't think any Chinese athlete, coming here or at home, can do better," he added.

Malaysia's Ho Ro Bin also turned out to be the final victor in a tight race with China's Hu Lifeng for the Men's Nanquan Three Events Combined title. Ho, who only led by the slightest margin of0.01 points in the first two performances of Nanquan (southern boxing) and Nandao (southern broadsword play), triumphed over his Chinese rival with an excellent show in the last event of Nangun (southern cudgel play).

"Hu appeared a bit tense on the floor (in the last performance) and failed to show his best," commented the Chinese team source. "Anyway, Malaysia's Ho is also very strong."

A similar situation occurred in the Men's Sanshou (free combat) semifinals Saturday afternoon, while Chinese Kung Fu fighters, winners of all five Sanshou golds at the Bangkok Asiad, were outmatched twice by the Iranians in the 65 kg and 70 kg categories.

Though Chinese coach Guan Jianmin claimed that his men were out of form, other team sources said that the Iranian athletes, with better physical conditions and rapidly-improving skills, were becoming a major threat to the Chinese fighters.

"Especially in the 70 kg category, Iran's Ojaghi Hossein was this year's Sanshou World Cup champion and the Chinese fighter Li Jie hardly stood a winning chance," the sources said.

In a display of his formidable strength, Hossein also made Sunday's 70 kg category final a match with the least suspense as he overwhelmed his Thai opponent easily and scored a quick 2-0 winin the three-round bout.

Athletes of Thailand also made history in Busan as they shared the other four Sanshou titles with the powerful Chinese to help their team rank second on the gold tally.

"The competition level at this Asiad is higher than any of the previous Games, and quite a few teams thought to be 'weak' have emerged as strong medal contenders," said Chen Guorong, technical supervisor of the Asiad Wushu competition.

Although some teams like Sri Lanka, Yemen and Laos were taking part in the Asiad Wushu competition for the first time, some of their athletes had already displayed "fairly good ability" and great potentials, said Chen.

The Chinese team also said that despite the loss of a few golds, they still felt happy for the rapid development of Wushu in the rest of Asia.

"This is good for Wushu's future, especially for the popularization of this sport across the world," said a team official.

Meanwhile, he pointed to the fact that many of the gold winners at this Asiad, including Khaing and Yang, had received training from Chinese coaches and even gone to China for practice.

The Chinese team also attained its goal of training young talents, as the 16-year-old girl Li Ao became China's biggest discovery and would sure shine brighter in the future.

Li, in her first international competition, surprisingly seizedthe gold for Women's Changquan Three Events Combined, while team officials and coaches didn't even expect her to make it into the top three.

"In general, the Wushu competition at this Asian Games has beena great success," said Chen, the technical supervisor.

However, many Asian athletes and coaches still cherished greater expectations for Wushu and themselves.

"Now I hope I can compete in the Olympic Games," said Khaing with the gold of the regional Olympics on her neck.

"There are so many people in the world who practice Taijiquan or love Kung Fu, why shouldn't Wushu become an Olympic event?" asked Thai Sanshou team coach Chirdsak Chaleosilp.

South Korean athlete Kweon Heung-seok believed that Wushu's entry into the Olympics would give a big push to the spread of this sport in his country.

"You can see from the example of Taekwondo," said the young manat a practice break. "After getting listed as an Olympic event, Taekwondo is gaining more and more influence in South Korea."

Wushu's Olympic bid has entered a critical stage as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is expected to meet in late November for a final decision on whether Wushu should become an official event in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

"I think the success of this Asiad's Wushu competition is very important to our efforts," said Lee Si-young, president of the Busan Wushu Association.

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