PETALING JAYA: Kwan Yong Xin is staking a strong claim to get onto the Youth Olympics stage after pulling off the biggest win of her young career.
The 17-year-old delivered a pleasant surprise by winning gold for Malaysia in the Asian Junior Wushu Championships in Jiangyin, China, yesterday.
Yong Xin danced her way to the gold with 9.426 points in the girls' 16-18 taijijian (taiji sword) event.
Singapore and Vietnam took silver (9.333) and bronze (9.316) respectively.
Yong Xin had narrowly missed gold in the taijiquan event the day before, scoring 9.356 to settle for silver behind China’s winner (9.420).
Although Yong Xin was only a silver medallist for the Federal Territories behind national exponent Mandy Cebelle Chen of Selangor at the Sarawak Malaysia Games (Sukma) last year, she is now a champion on the Asian junior stage.
She was delighted to achieve this milestone ahead of wushu's highly anticipated debut as a medal sport at the 2026 Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, Senegal.
Malaysia enjoyed a medal rush in the last two days with five more silvers from Lee Ronn in boys' 14-15 changquan (9.270), Lee Cheng Wei in girls' 16-18 changquan (9.426), Ong Wei Bin in boys' 16-18 changquan (9.433), Bryan Wee in boys' 13 and under daoshu (9.073) and Logan Lim in boys 13 and under nangun (9.036).
