Lee and Woo go down fighting

Lee and Woo go down fighting

Wednesday, 17th November 2010

16-year-old Lee Ying Shi finished
11th in a field of 14 competitors
during yesterday's Long Fist
(Changquan) event at Nansha
Gymnasium's Field A. Picture:
Infofoto

Lee Ying Shi has vowed to use her experience competing at the Guangzhou Asian Games to spur her to greater heights.

The 16-year-old finished 11th in a field of 14 competitors during yesterday's Long Fist (Changquan) event at Nansha Gymnasium's Field A, just short of her target of a Top-10 finish at the 16th edition of the Games.

Brunei's flag-bearer at last Friday's opening ceremony, Lee finished with 7.72 points which were derived from her performance in three criteria.

The judges awarded Lee 4.2 out of a possible five points for quality of movement (A), 2.47 out of three for overall performance (B) and 1.05 out of 2 for degree of difficulty (C) scores she felt she could improve on.

"I hope to train and improve more," Lee told The Brunei Times yesterday.

"Before the competition I said I had to concentrate and be confident, and that's what I did.

"I wasn't nervous at all. I don't know how to explain this but... I think I can do better. I was careless and my jumping movements had no balance.

"My competitors are all more experienced than me. Some of them have been learning and training for at least 10 years I have just been doing wushu for three years," said Lee, who was competing in the biggest event of her life.

Hong Kong's Geng Xiaoling won gold with a score of 9.75 (A:5, B:2.75 and C:2) while Myanmar's Oo Sandi Oo finished with with silver on 9.67 (A:5, B:2.67 and C:2).

Indonesia's Susyana Tjhan and Japan's Yuki Hiraoka shared the bronze medal after both finished with identical 9.66 (A:5, B: 2.66 and C:2).

To be fair to Lee, she was not competing in her favoured duilian (duo sparring) event, the discipline which has seen her make a name for herself in the local wushu scene. Teaming up with Faustina Woo Wai Sii, the pair have helped put Brunei on the map through their medals in the event.

They won gold during the 4th World Traditional Wushu Championship in China in October, finished with silver during the 25th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Laos last December and came back with bronze from the 3rd Indoor Asian Games in Vietnam last November.

Unfortunately for Lee, the event was not competed in Guangzhou.

Despite her result, Lee remained upbeat and felt that her trip to Guangzhou was time well spent.

"My competitors are really experienced and I was able to learn a lot from them. Things like how to be confident during the competition, the jumping movements...," she said.

"I don't really feel sad or disappointed about my result. Actually, I am sort of happy since I beat three competitors.

"Now that the Games are over for me I will be watching the other events," she added.

Lee finished ahead of Laos' Soudaphone Chanlapheng (7.52), Kazakhstan's Anel Sanat Kyzy (7.29) and Lebanon's Patricia Nseir (7.28).

Woo also saw action at the Games, the first Bruneian to take to the arena when she competed in the combined Southern Fist (Nanquan) and Southern Broad Sword (Nandao All-Round) event last Saturday.

The 18-year-old Woo scored a total of 15.9 points to place ninth of 10 competitors.

After five days of competition, the sport comes to a close today with eight events contested.

The country continues its quest at the Chinese metropolis on Friday through fencing's Mohammad Yunos Hj Hamid.

Pg Mohd Nasir Pg Anak Jaafar is set to see action in the equestrian show jumping discipline next Wednesday while karate-do's Muhammad Fida'iy Hj Sanif (men's kumite -60kg) and his older brother Mohammad Fadillah (men's kumite -67kg) will do battle next Thursday.

Mainudin Hj Mohamad and Mohammad Jamil Hj Abd Hamid will be the last of the country's eight athletes to do battle at the Games when they compete in the men's kumite -75kg and men's kumite -84kg next Friday.

Courtesy from Brunei Times