SEA Games 2025: No worries for Singapore wushu, despite golden run ending

BANGKOK – For the first time since the sport was introduced at the SEA Games, Singapore’s wushu exponents will return from the biennial event without a gold medal.

After three days of competition at the Chaeng Watthana Government Complex, the 12-member squad comprising SEA Games winners, Asian Games medallists and world champions returned home with two silvers and four bronzes.

While he acknowledged that the level in the region has risen, Singapore Wushu Dragon & Lion Dance Federation president Ang Mong Seng was not too concerned about the end of their winning streak, which stretched back to 1991, adding that he was “happy with the result”.

He pointed to the late change in format as a key reason for the lack of golds.

The team won two golds, three silvers and a bronze at the Cambodia Games in 2023 and achieved the same result at the Vietnam Games in 2022.

Ang added: “I’m happy with the result. But I hope we can do better in time to come. This time, they combined three events into one.

“So it’s very tough for the athletes to perform. But I think Singapore has done well.”

“But (when) we compare with other athletes from South-east Asia, the standard is very high, and they have improved also.

“So I think the Singapore team will have to do more training and we are planning to send our athletes to do more centralised training abroad such as in China.

“We hope that we can do better in the next SEA Games in Malaysia (in 2027).”

For the first time at the Games, organisers made a decision to combine three events in the taolu discipline (bare hands and weapons categories).

In the men’s taolu category, the combined events were nanquan-nandao-nangun, changquan-daoshu-gunshu and taijiquan-taijijian, while the combinations for women were nanquan-nandao-nangun, changquan-jianshu-qiangshu and taijiquan-taijijian.

There were also four events each for duilian (duel) and sanda (sparring).

The new format also meant a reduction in the number of events, from 22 in the last edition to 14.

Ang noted that they were informed of the changes only “two months ago”, though he added that they have to respect the hosts’ decision.

One of the bright sparks from this campaign was Siti Khadijah Shahrem, who won Singapore’s first medal in a women’s sanda event when she took

joint-bronze in the sanda 60kg on Dec 14

.

On Dec 15, Randall Lim, 23 and Tay Yu Xuan, 24, won silver medals in the men’s nanquan-nandao-nangun and men’s taijiquan-taijijian respectively.

Lim finished second out of 11 competitors while Tay was second in a field of 13, which included Chan Jun Kai, 24, who won the bronze.

Le Yin Shuen, 22, claimed a bronze in the changquan-jianshu-qiangshu while Kassandra Ong, 19, also bagged a bronze in the women’s nanquan-nandao-nangun event.

Defending champion Jowen Lim, who is a former world champion and Asian Games silver medallist in the men’s daoshu and gunshu combined event, returned home empty-handed after finishing seventh in the men’s changquan-daoshu-gunshu event.

Lim, 26, noted that his mistake during the changquan event proved costly.

He said: “It would have definitely been nice to medal and win something for Singapore but to me, the most important thing is my performance, and as long as I’m happy with my overall performance, I won’t be too upset.”

“During this competition, I did pretty well for my pet events (daoshu-gunshu).

“The hard part of having three categories in one is that you need to have no mistakes to be able to squeeze into the podium.

“But overall, I am happy with how I did.”