Rise of our women warriors

Proud moment: Malaysia’s medal winners (from left) Pang Pui Yee, Tan Cheong Min and Sydney Chin at the World Games in Chengdu, China.

PETALING JAYA: Pang Pui Yee capped a stellar campaign for Malaysian women in wushu by clinching silver in the all-around event at the World Games in Chengdu, China.

The 26-year-old, who is the fiancée of former world champion Wong Weng Son, combined power and poise to post impressive scores of 9.730 in changquan, 9.726 in jianshu (sword), and 9.733 in qiangshu (spear).

Her consistent display earned her a total of 29.189 points at the Hi-Tech Zone Sports Centre Gymnasium, securing second place and adding another medal to Malaysia’s haul.

Kida Nanoha of Japan secured the bronze with 29.116 points while Hong Kong’s Lydia Sham came out tops in all three disciplines to claim the gold with a total of 29.260 points.

Pui Yee’s silver was Malaysia’s third medal in the Games after the exploits of Tan Cheong Min and Sydney Chin.

Cheong Min made her way into the history books by becoming the country’s first ever gold medallist in the sport at the Games after winning the nandao-nanquan all-round event on Saturday.

Pui Yee in action.

Sydney became the first Malaysian medallist after taking bronze in the women’s taijijian-taijiquan all-round event on Friday.

Clement Ting, the only Malaysian man in the fray, finished fifth in the men’s changquan, daoshu and gunshu all-round event (28.815) yesterday.

Team manager Datuk Chong Kim Fatt hailed Pui Yee’s strong mental composure.

“It’s a big boost to her confidence as she will be competing in next month’s World Cham­pionships (in Brazil),” said Kim Fatt.

“This ranks as her biggest achievement with the national team after many years. Pui Yee also won bronze in the jianshu at the Taolu Asia Cup in China last month and she carried her form into the World Games.

“She did not have any major mistakes, which is not an easy thing to do when you have to do three different events over two days.

“It’s the first time that we had four exponents in the World Games and all the medals came from the women this time,” he said.