Singapore’s athletes bag three silvers and one bronze at World Wushu Championships

SINGAPORE – Despite not being able to retain their world titles, there were silver linings for Singapore’s Zeanne Law and Jowen Lim at the Sept 3-7 World Wushu Championships in Brazil, as they look forward to the year-end SEA Games.

At Brasilia’s Ulysses Guimaraes Convention Centre – where the championships were held for the first time in South America – Law secured her first silver in the women’s taijiquan when she scored 9.763 to finish second out of 19 athletes on Sept 4.

Law was behind China’s Wu Xu (9.783) and ahead of Japan’s Shiho Saito (9.746), while fellow Singaporean Vera Tan was fifth (9.733).

Two days later, Law scored 9.726 and was pipped to the women’s taijijian gold by Saito (9.740), as she finished second out of 18 exponents. Filipina Agatha Wong (9.703) took the bronze, while Tan (9.670) was fifth again.

Law, 19, told The Straits Times: “Two years ago, my focus was simply to do my best and gain experience. Going into these world championships, I stepped onto the carpet with more confidence, maturity and naturally, higher expectations of myself... to give my all and finish my routines with no deductions.

“While I’m proud of how I performed, it was also a learning experience to adapt to the judging styles. This year, we see many new judges, so the points they look out for may be a little different from before.

“I’ll study the scoring system more closely and refine my routines, so I can come back stronger.”

In the 2023 edition in Texas, Law had won the women’s taijiquan crown by pipping Wong on a tiebreak. She also finished second in the women’s duilian with Zoe Tan and Kimberly Ong, and fifth in the women’s taijijian. Her achievements saw her named 2024 Sportsgirl of the Year.

She followed up with gold in the women’s taijiquan and optional taijishan events at the 2024 World Taijiquan Championships in Singapore, earning the Sportswoman of the Year award the following year.

Satisfied with two individual medals this time, Law said: “I’m grateful to make the podium for taijijian after finishing fifth in the previous edition, so I’m happy to know that I’m able to balance both events and execute them well.

“Finishing behind China and Japan at these championships, and my experience from previous competitions this year have given me a good sensing of where I stand at the SEA Games.”

In the men’s competition, Lim’s silver came in the daoshu (broadsword) on Sept 7.

After progressing from the 49-man preliminary rounds, he scored 9.763 in the 11-man final, losing by just 0.007 point to Indonesia’s Seraf Siregar, with Russia’s Kirill-Zui Bondarenko (9.760) claiming the bronze.

In 2023, Lim had a joint silver in daoshu with Malaysia’s Clement Ting, and was the gunshu (cudgel) world champion ahead of Siregar and Ting.

However, he slipped to fourth in the men’s gunshu in Brasilia, scoring 9.743 to finish behind China’s Gao Xiaobin (9.806), Frenchman Loan Drouard (9.750) and South Korean Lee Ha-sung (9.750).

Lim, 26, said: “I’m definitely a little bummed out to not defend the gunshu gold. This year, I was aiming for the daoshu gold as I have not won this title before.

“In the end, I fell 0.007 points short. Still, I’m very satisfied with my performances and will continue working to improve.”

On Sept 5, Tay Yu Xuan pocketed a men’s taijiquan bronze after finishing third out of 19 competitors with 9.716.

He was behind South Korean An Hyeon-gi (9.730) and Hong Kong’s Samuei Hui (9.720), and ahead of fellow Singaporean Chan Jun Kai (9.713).

The Republic’s haul of three silvers and one bronze placed them joint-11th – alongside Chinese Taipei and India – out of 69 countries and territories, as China maintained their stranglehold. They topped the medal tally for the 17th straight edition with 15 golds, ahead of Iran (six) and Malaysia (five).

While noting that the results were short of their best haul of two golds, four silvers and two bronzes as they ranked fifth overall in 2023, national taolu coach Zhang Feng felt it was still an encouraging outing ahead of the Dec 9-20 SEA Games in Thailand.

He said: “We travelled a long way and there were preliminaries introduced for some events, but they handled the pressure well to showcase what they have trained years for – to put up brave and consistent performances.

“While we were disappointed with some of the judging, we felt our athletes have improved in their routines and technical stability, and gained precious experience ahead for the SEA Games.

“We will continue to work on our fundamentals and level up on the high-difficulty moves, to seek improvements in every detail, so that we can convincingly display our strengths to the judges and audience and fly the Singapore flag higher.”