Weng Son finally ends six-year and ‘three-hour’ wait for world gold

In Red-hot form: Weng Son performing en route to his gold medal in the men’s changquan event at the World Championships in Fort Worth, Texas.

PETALING JAYA: Perseverance won the day for Wong Weng Son as he is again crowned a world champion in wushu at the age of 31.

Weng Son rose to the occasion in the final tournament of the year to deliver the first gold for Malaysia in the men’s changquan event at the World Championships in Fort Worth, Texas, yesterday.

Weng Son had to wait almost three hours to perform a 120-second routine but it was rewarding in the end.

Being the second last exponent to perform, he scored a stunning 9.826 points to top the field of 78 competitors.

Posing with his top prize.

Indonesia’s Seraf Naro Siregar was pushed to the silver medal spot with 9.803 points.

There was a satisfied smile on Weng Son’s face as he marched out of the arena, knowing he has succeeded in winning a second career world championship gold medal after his first in jianshu (sword) event at the 2017 edition in Kazan, Russia.

But the last six years since winning in Kazan, he had suffered disappointment after disappointment in the Cambodia SEA Games (May), Hangzhou Asian Games (Sept) and World Combat Games in Saudi Arabia (Oct).

Weng Son took part in his fifth SEA Games outing in Cambodia hoping to nail the elusive gold medal but had to settle for bronze.

He also returned home empty-handed from the Hangzhou Asian Games and World Combat Games in Riyadh.

Weng Son said he has never stopped training since he came back with the silver medal in the men’s changquan at the last world meet in Shanghai in 2019.

“I came here with a high degree of difficulty and it was about executing everything right on the day,” he said.

“My preparation has been good this year. I was hoping to get my first gold medal at the SEA Games but I was not able to. I went back and trained harder to raise my difficulty as the Asian Games was next.

“I could not get on the podium but I did not give up.

“It’s a tough event to win as there were a lot of good competitors. The Indonesian exponent made a minor mistake today.

“Honestly, I did not expect to win this event as I did not set any target as I just wanted to perform well to impress the judges.

“I was drawn as the second last exponent for this competition and the long wait was not so good as we had already warmed up earlier, so I can’t believe I did it.

“Our coach from China (Zhang Yongsheng) also said it was one of the highest scores achieved in this event at a world championships,” said the Seremban-born exponent, whose golden feat will see him rewarded with RM80,000 under the National Sports Council (NSC) incentive scheme.

Malaysia also took the bronze medal in men’s changquan with Clement Ting scoring 9.800 points.

It was the second medal for Clement on US soil as the Sarawakian took silver in the men’s daoshu on Friday.

Malaysia also got one silver from Loh Ying Ting (women’s changquan) while Tan Cheong Min bounced back to win bronze in the women’s nangun.

Cheong Min, the Hangzhou Asian Games silver medallist, struggled to cope with a cold and only placed seventh in the women’s nandao event on Friday.

Malaysia are currently third in the medal standings with 1-3-2 with two days of competition remaining.

RESULTS

Men

Changquan: 1. Wong Weng Son (Mas) 9.826, 2. Seraf Naro Siregar (Ina) 9.803, 3. Clement Ting (Mas) 9.800.

Nandao: 1. Harris Horatius (Ina) 9.796, 2. Huang Jun Hua (Mac) 9.783, 3. Lau Chi Lung (Hkg) 9.770. Selected: 11. Calvin Lee Wai Leong (Mas) 9.710.

Taijijian: 1. Chen Yu-wei (Tpe) 9.756, 2. Tay Yu Xuan (Sin) and Tomohira Araya (Jpn) 9.753. Selected: 13. Tan Zhi Yan (Mas) 9.326.

Women

Changquan: 1. Sou Cho Man (Mac) 9.810, 2. Loh Ying Ting (Mas) 9.770, 3. Kimberly Ong (Sin) 9.770. Nangun: 1. Nhi Dang Tran Phuong (Vie) 9.760, 2. He Jianxin (Hkg) 9.753, 3. Tan Cheong Min (Mas) 9.523.

Taijiquan: 1. Zeanne Law Zhi Ning (Sin) 9.776, 2. Agatha Wong (Phi) 9.773, 3. Basma Lachkar (Bru) 9.770. Selected: 6. Sydney Chin (Mas) 9.743.