Wushu exponent Diana has plenty left in the tank

Wushu exponent Diana Bong of Malaysia in action at the Incheon Asian Games in South Korea last year. - KAMARUL ARIFFIN/ The STAR

PETALING JAYA: She’s 29 going on 30 but wushu exponent Diana Bong Siong Lin is not thinking about retirement yet.

Not when she still packs a lethal punch as the region’s top exponent in women’s nanquan (southern barehands) discipline.

“You’ll be seeing me around as I have promised my coach (Lim Yew Fai) that I’ll continue until the next Asian Games in Indonesia in 2018,” said Diana, who turns 30 on Sept 5.

“I can still contribute to the country.”

Diana, the 2013 World Championships gold medallist in women’s nandao (sword) and nangun (cudgel) events, joined the national team in 2004.

She also bagged gold at the Asian Championships in nanquan in Ho Chi Minh City in 2012; and two silver medals in nanquan and nandao in the same competition.

And the Kuching-born exponent also has an excellent track record at the SEA Games. She’ll be gunning for her fourth gold medal when she competes in her fifth SEA Games in Singapore next month. The wushu competition is from June 6-8.

Diana won the nanquan and nandao combined event in her SEA Games debut in Thailand in 2007 and the nangun and nandao combined event in Laos two years later.

She managed bronze in Indonesia in 2011 as Tai Cheau Xuen stepped up to snatch the gold in nandao and nangun combined event.

At the Myanmar Games in 2013, Diana bagged her third gold in nanquan while Cheau Xuen came out tops in nandao and Phoon Eyin captured the wome’s qianshu (spear) gold.

The two events will be combined into one in Singapore and Diana reckons the stakes will be higher.

“Malaysia have been successful in the nanquan discipline for the last five SEA Games. I hope to continue that ... but if I can’t, I believe Tai can,” said Diana.

“She’s been training with the national team the last two months and I believe she’ll have a good SEA Games outing. She will be a good rival.”

Cheau Xuen returned to training at the end of March after serving a four-month ban for a doping offence at the Asian Games in Incheon last September. Cheau Xuen won the gold in nanquan but had to return the medal after testing positive for the banned substance sibutramine.

Malaysia will be hard to beat in women’s nanquan and nandao combined event in Singapore but Diana is not underestimating anyone.

“We’ve not seen the Vietnamese and Indonesian exponents in action because the Asian Games was our last competition ... so we don’t know how far they’ve improved,” she said.