China, birthplace of Wushu or Chinese Martial Arts, showed its superiority in the game when it collected 18 golds at the eighth Wushu world championships closed Wednesday.

Vietnam stands second with 5 golds, Malaysia third with 4 golds and the Philippines forth with 3 golds in the competition.

China's Macao and Hong Kong, Russia and Iran won 2 gold medals each, Chinese Taibei, South Korea, Italy and the Netherlands took one gold each.

In the Shanshou competition on Wednesday night, four Chinese woman shanshou athletes sailed into the finals, with all of them winning in their categories respectively.

Zhang Xiaoyan, Zhang Yujie, Li Junli and Sun Hui were triumphed in 52kg, 56kg, 60kg and 70kg categories respectively. While Vietnam's Bvu Thi Nhu Trang won the gold in 48kg category. Her compatriot Ha Thi Hanh won the 65kg category.

Four Chinese male shanshou athletes also got their golds in the 60kg, 65kg, 70kg, 75kg, respectively.

In the Taolu competition, Ho Robin from Malaysia and Peng Weiqun of Chinese Taibei jointly won the gold in man's Nandao (South knives) with a score of 9.60 points. The bronze medal went to Malaysian Pui Fookchien who scored 9.55. His compatriot Lin Yenfai got the gold in the man's Nanjian (south sword).

Macao's Han Jing and Huang Yanhui won the gold of women's Dual events, followed by Chinese Hong Kong's Law Sumyin, Wong Wunyee and Ho Pak Keipeggie. The gold of man's Dual events went to host Vietnam.

Altogether 520 athletes from 57 countries and regions, the most in its history, competed for medals in the six-day tournament. In the championships, the Taolu event increased to 22 categories and the Sanshou event to 18.

Beijing will host the 9th championships in 2007.

Source: Xinhua