China Continues Dominating at World Wushu Championships

China, birthplace of Wushu or Chinese Martial Arts, showed its superiority and mastery in the game when it collected 11 golds at the Fifth World Wushu Championships closed in Hong Kong on November 7.

"I am very satisfied with my 13 athlets' performance, especially Shanshou fighters in the tournament, I'd say we have reached our aim," said Chinese team leader Li Jie, who is general secretary of the International Wushu Federation.

In order to promote Wushu to the world, Chinese, who won eight golds in last championships in Rome two years ago, restrained themselves by limiting each of their 8 Taolu athlets to compete in only one event.

Fortunately, all the eight athlets were crowned in their events in the tournament which featured 20 Taolu events and 11 Shanshou categories.

In Sunday's competitions, China's Jian Zengjiao did not meet problems by winning the men's Daoshu in 9.60 points. The silver medal went to South Korean Park Chan Dae who scored 9.41.

Ng Siu Ching of Hong Kong, China, defended her world title in women's Nanquan in 9.43 points. Vateran Ng has collected four golds in the previous world championships.

Macao's Lei Fei won the silver medal with a difference of 0.10 points.

In the Shanshou competition, four out of five Chinese shanshou athlets sailed into the finals, with three of them winning in their categories respectively.

Chen Long, Wang Wenjun and Zheng Kunyou were triumphed in 48kg, 52kg, 56kg respectively while Jian Zhengjiao was beaten by Djanpolad Boudagov of AZE in the 70kg category.

Russia became the sixth team to snatch a gold in the tournament as Ahhadov Murat clinched won the 65kg category by beating Loriaux Alain of the United States in Shanshou.

His compatriot Ataev Boziget won the 80kg category.

South Korean Kim Gwee Jong clinched the second gold for his country in the tournament when he overwhelmed Diep Bao Minh of Vietnam in the 60kg final.

In the other categories, Iran won two golds while the other two titles went to Ukrain's Chamic Magomedov of 90kg and Egypt's Elkenam Ibrahim of 85kg.

Altogether 362 athletes from 55 countries and regions are competing for 31 gold medals in the four-day tournament.

Wushu, an ancient Chinese defense art also known as Kungfu, is now an increasingly popular sport in the world, with 60 million people in China and over 10 million fans outside China practicing it. (Xinhua)


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