All set: Cassandra Poyong is primed to fight her way to the podium in ju-jitsu.
A LAW graduate who took up Ju-jitsu after looking at an advertisement on a shop window is all ready to fight for glory in her debut Asian Games outing in Hangzhou.
Cassandra Poyong, fresh from a five week-long intensive training camp in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, will head straight to Hangzhou this weekend hopeful of winning a place on the podium for the women’s below 57kg category.
Sabah-born Cassandra is the first Malaysian woman to take part in the Asian Games ju-jitsu competition but she is definitely not going there to make up the numbers.
She will enter the Games with the credentials of winning silver in the below 59kg category at the European Championships in Paris in January and a bronze in the below 57kg category at the Asian Championships in Bangkok in March.
She was also the gold medallist in the below 55kg category at the Ju-jitsu Masters world championship in Abu Dhabi in July of 2019 before bagging a silver medal in the same category at the Philippines SEA Games.
Cassandra is glad that she took an ad on a shop window seriously.
“After completing my law degree, I realised that I was unfit. I wanted to lose the extra pounds and also wanted to have a bit of a change of pace. I saw an ad on a shop window and tried out. I’ve never stopped since,” she said.
“I’m glad that my intent to shed some kilos had led me to a new passion.”
The 34-year-old said she went to Brazil to raise her standards for Asiad.
“I get to train with two black belt female coaches there. I also learnt the way the Brazilians fight, their style of porrada (brawling),” said Cassandra.
“But the main reason is that I wanted to follow in the footsteps of my coach Prof Bruno Barbosa.
“He also had trained here before and joined lots of local tournaments (in Brazil) and he did really well,” said Cassandra.
“The way I train is different from how I used to now. Training at our school (Hikari Gym) at home follows the training style in the United States and here in Brazil, it is more towards fine tuning my techniques and fight style.”
Besides Cassandra, Malaysia will also be represented in the men’s competition by Dr Tee Lip Jin in the men’s below 85kg category.
