BARRING ANY ISSUES, M'SIAN WUSHU TEAM HEADING TO MACAU INVITATIONAL

By Mazani Chan Yat Sin

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 12 -- The Wushu Federation of Malaysia (WFM) plans to send the national squad for an invitational tournament in Macau in early November as part of preparations for a number of tournaments next year.

Its president, Datuk Chong Kim Fatt, said that Singapore, Hong Kong and Indonesia are also expected to participate besides Malaysia and Macau.

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“The tournament is part of our preparations before taking part in the 31st SEA Games since there are no tournaments taking place this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We will send the whole squad for a week of training with the Hong Kong team in Macau before the tournament.

“As for the young exponents, it will be the best platform for them to gain invaluable experience before taking part in the 2021 SEA Games in Vietnam,” he told Bernama recently.

However, said Chong, their participation will depend on approval from the National Sports Council (MSN) which is monitoring the pandemic.

The national wushu squad will be relying on a huge number of young athletes for some competitions in coming years as senior athletes like Loh Choon How (struggling with recurrent injuries) and Phoon Eyin (wants to focus on her studies) have retired.

WFM received a major boost recently when five national backup wushu exponents - Ang Qi Yue, Tan Cheong Wan, Tan Zhi Yan, Pang Pui Yee and Tammy Tan Hui Ling - entered the high-performance national athlete training Podium Programme.

The current objective of the programme which was initiated by the Youth and Sports Ministry is to win Malaysia’s first gold medal at the Tokyo Olympic Games which has been postponed to next year because of COVID-19.

-- BERNAMA