Kwan step at a time

Serious business: Kwan Yong Xin in action during the taijijian event yesterday.

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.

“My biggest aim now is to qualify to represent Malaysia at the Youth Olympics next year.

“It’s the first time wushu will be contested as a medal sport, and it’s my last chance – I won’t be eligible in four years,” said Yong Xin.

“I was confident of my performance as I have my coach around (former SEA Games gold medallist Loh Jack Chang).

“I’m grateful for the support as my coach was the one who supported me to switch to doing taiji from jiangshu and qiangshu just three years ago,” she said.

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).