I totally forgot about this. I've been following it, but haven't been posting anything. :o
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Friday, December 19, 2008 7:20 AM
Indonesia takes third at world junior wushu championship
Indonesia managed to win three silver medals and one bronze on the final day of competition, to finish in third place behind reigning champion China and Japan, at the World Junior Wushu Championships in Nusa Dua, Bali, on Saturday.
Indonesian medals came in the taolu (form) events, in which Vietnam emerged with the most gold medals, winning three of the eight up for grabs on the day. Hong Kong secured two and South Korea, Iran and Malaysia each took one.
Lindswell and Eric Losardi added to their medal collection with a silver and a bronze respectively. Lindswell, who had won gold in the tajiquan event, was just one onehundredth behind Korean gold medalist Kim Ok-jin, who scored 9.21 points against Indonesian's 9.20 in the women's 42 discipline taijijian.
In the men's nando, Eric, the winner of nanquan event, failed to maintain form as and was outscored by Pham Quoc Khanh of Vietnam, who took gold, and Xu Kai Gul of Taiwan, who took silver.
Kelvin Young was also one onehundredth shy of winner Lam Ka Kin, from Hong Kong, in the men's gunshu event, winning silver. Bronze went to Komatsu Motoshi of Japan.
Indonesia's third silver came in the men's duilian event, which saw Charles Sutanto and Eric Losardi team up.
In total, Indonesia collected six gold, eight silver and eight bronze, a big leap from the first championship held in Kuala Lumpur two years ago, when Indonesia returned home with only a single gold, silver and two bronzes.
China proved its domination with a haul of 16 gold and two silver medals, while Japan will take home eight gold, five silver and five bronze medals.
The Chinese, however, were not invincible. They failed to make two of the eight finals they were fighting for in the sanshou arena, in both instances going down to their Russian opponents.
Six of Iran's competitors made the finals but only four managed victories, giving the team a total of five gold medals.
"We had expected more, but winning five gold medals makes us happy," Abbas Varizi, an Iranian team official, said.
Indonesia could only secure three silver medals. Despite the failure in the sanshou, the Indonesian team was generally beaming with the haul in taolu events, which, according to Supandi Kusuma, chairman of Wushu Indonesia (WI), surpassed expectations.
"We had expected between three and four gold medals. We are satisfied with the athletes performance," he said.
He urged the athletes to keep training for next year's challenge; Indonesia is preparing to take part in the Asian Junior Championship in the Phippines and the World Championship in Toronto, Canada.
The second World Junior Wushu Championship featured 44 countries, 27 of which are returning home with medals.
Medal tally
The final medal standings from the World Junior Wushu Championship, which closed on Saturday in Nusa Dua, Bali:
China 16 2 -
Japan 8 5 5
Indonesia 6 8 8
Vietnam 6 7 11
Hong Kong 5 5 3
Iran 5 2 6
Russia 4 3 4
Canada 3 7 3
Malaysia 3 5 3
Singapore 1 3 2
Philippines 1 3 -
South Korea 1 2 3
United States 1 2 1
Macau 1 1 6
Taiwan 1 1 2
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Viet Nam bags medals in World Junior Wushu championships
(12-12-2008)
HA NOI — Vietnamese wushu martial artists pocketed one gold, one silver and two bronze medals at the second World Junior Wushu Championships, which went ahead in Bali, Indonesia after eight teams withdrew from the competition.
Pham Quoc Khanh successfully passed many strong rivals, including those from Hong Kong and China, to win his gold in the boy’s nangun (South cudgel) event with 9.50 points.
His teammate Nguyen Trung Thanh later took a silver for Viet Nam in the boy’s taijiquan event with 9.42 points. The gold went to a Chinese artist.
Vu Thuy Linh added one bronze to the pile in the girl’s nangun, with 9.41 points. Linh, who pocketed a nanquan (Southern fist) bronze medal at the World Wushu Championship in November in Beijing, finished third behind Indonesian Dessy Indri Astute, with 9.45 points, and 17-year-old Tai Cheau Xuen of Malaysia, who earned 9.42 points in a 15-exponent competition.
Cao Khac Dat finished the day with the second bronze in the boy’s nandao (South broad-sword),with 9.31 points.
Athletes waiting in the wings include Vu Tra My, who took a silver medal at the Beijing tournament, and Nguyen Ngoc Anh, who will compete in the girl’s qiangshu (demonstration with spear) event, and Nguyen Manh Khoa for the boy’s qiangshu. All are expected to bring home gold medals.
In the sanshou (combat) tournaments, Vietnamese Tran Van Kien will face Enes Doruk of Turkey in the second round of the boy’s 48kg category after an easy win on Wednesday.
Earlier, Le Van The knocked out Kumuppu of Syria in the boy’s 56kg to fight Huang Wenkun of Macau in the next round.
Indonesia on Wednesday took a second gold medal when Lindswell won the girl’s 42-forms taijiquan event. The nation added to a bronze to its tally courtesy of Thalia Lovita in the women’s jianshu (sword-play) event.
While Thalia was beaten by eventual gold medallist Mori Miki of Japan and silver medallist Phoon E. Yin of Malaysia, Lindswell dominated the 10 competitors in her field.
The 17-year-old athlete from Medan, North Sumatra, executed her five-minute routine almost to the letter to earn 9.45 points out of 10. Hi Shixing of Macau and Kim Ok-jin of South Korea had to make do with second and third place with 9.17 and 9.06 points, respectively.
"It surprised me a bit because I knew it was a contest with strong competitors," Lindswell said.
Although Indonesia did reach the top of the medals table, the home team was delighted with their athletes’ performances.
"These two golds are important to raise the fighting spirit among the kids," said Supandi Kusuma, chairman of Wushu Indonesia.
The US team won a single gold in the girl’s daoshu (broadsword-play) thanks to Vanessa Loza and Russia, who arrived with 16 athletes, opened its bid by snatching two golds through Husnutdinov Ilias in the boy’s daoshu and Korolev Daniil in the boy’s jianshu.
The Bali event will last through Sunday at the Westin Hotel NusaDua Bali, with 62 gold medals on offer in two disciplines – taolu (artistic performance) and sanshou.
The taolu participants are split into three categories – A (from 16 to 18 years old), B (13 to 15) and C (7 to 13) – and will contest a total of 50 gold medals in the boy’s and girl’s division, while the sanshou boy’s and girl’s fighters will duke it out for 12 golds.
A total of 700 athletes and officials from 44 countries are taking part in the tournament, which will run through tomorrow.
Fifty-two of the 125 countries and regional members of the International Wushu Federation initially registered for the competition, but eight withdrew due to fears about security.
In the inaugural event in Malaysia in 2006, China won most of the medals, taking home 16 golds and one silver, followed by Viet Nam. Indonesia won one gold and three silvers in that tournament. — VNS
