Ronn born to succeed

Serious business: Lee Ronn in action during the Asian Junior Wushu Championships gunshu (cudgel) event.

Young wushu ace bags double gold

PETALING JAYA: Lee Ronn is fast proving himself a star in the making for Malaysian wushu.

The 14-year-old dazzled at the Asian Junior Wushu Championships in Jiangyin, China, yesterday by winning double gold in the boys’ 14–15 daoshu (broadsword) and gunshu (cudgel) events.

The Melaka-born athlete topped the daoshu with a score of 9.336, edging out rivals from Taiwan (9.330) and Indonesia (9.320).

Later, he claimed his second gold in gunshu with 9.303 points, again ahead of Singapore (9.266) and Indonesia (9.260).

Recruited into the national team only last year, Lee Ronn has already achieved feats most young athletes only dream of – winning gold on both the world and Asian stages.

At last year’s World Junior Championships in Brunei, he also struck gold in daoshu and changquan.

This time around, he added a silver in changquan and has his eyes set on the 2026 Youth Olympics in Dakar, where wushu will make its debut as a medal sport.

Malaysia also clinched another gold through Logan Lim in the boys’ 13 and under nandao (sword) event with a winning score of 9.106 points.

The Malaysian team thus finished with a haul of four gold, six silver and seven bronze medals.

The bronze medals yesterday were contributed by Ron Lim in boys’ 14-15 taijijian (9.220), Ong Wei Bin in boys’ 16-18 qiangshu (9.150) and Tan Yu Zuan in girls’ 14-15 qiangshu (9.126).

Kwan Yong Xin, who delivered the first gold in girls’ 16-18 taijijian event on Monday, finished her campaign on a high by taking bronze in the taijiquan event (9.400).

There was also a first-ever bronze in sanda (fighting) discipline from Cheah Ming Jer in the boys’ junior 52kg category.