KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 6 (Sin Chew Daily) — Malaysian ranks second in the first Asian traditional wushu (online) competition with 11 golds and two silvers.

President of the Wushu Federation of Malaysia (WFM) Datuk Chong Kim Fatt is happy with the overall performance of Malaysian exponents.

WFM and Wushu Federation of Asia (WFA) took the traditional wushu competition this year online as major wushu competitions were put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

China is the overall champion winning a total of 13 golds, followed by Malaysia with 11 golds and two silvers while the Hong Kong Wushu Union wins ten golds, one silver and two bronzes.

In concluding the performance of Malaysian exponents, Chong said only few exponents had managed to maintain the basic techniques while many were lagging behind in terms of stamina and techniques.

“The technical and evaluation committees under WFM will be carrying out a postmortem next week to find ways to improve.

“We are happy with the competition which sees a total of 21 countries taking part.

“There is still room for improvement in terms of techniques and physical fitness. We should no longer cite the pandemic as an excuse after one and a half years. We should learn to live with the coronavirus.

“Next, we will be looking for a plan to upgrade the stamina and techniques of our exponents,” he said.

Chong said overall the wushu standard for other countries dipped too although China was still the strongest team. All 13 exponents from China bagged 13 golds.

China opened up half a year earlier than other countries and there have been many tournaments held in China, including the recently concluded National Games of China,” he said.

“The wushu standard in the Middle East and East Asia has declined. We will be submitting the matter to be discussed at WFA.

“We will be studying the matter immediately to find out how to enhance wushu development in East Asia and the Middle East, said Chong.