8/9/2019 Kung Fu Hustle

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TUESDAY28 March

2006

COVERSTORY

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The makings of a

championBY NIKI CHEONGT IS not often that one can callhimself a world champion, let aloneat the tender age of 22. But that is aitle that Malaysian wushu

exponent Lim Yew Fai will hold withhim for the rest of his life, afteraking home the gold medal at the

8th Wushu World Championships inHanoi, Vietnam, last year.

Yew Fai joined three others whoalso became world champions inheir respective events when he beat

competitors from almost 50 coun-ries in hisjianshu (double-edged

sword) event.The success was even sweeter as it

came very shortly after theMalaysian wushu team had theirworse ever outing at the SEA Gamesin Manila, the Philippines. For thefirst time since the sport was intro-duced to the Games, the Malaysianteam left without a single goldmedal in wushu.

But what is it that makes a cham-pion? Do these people really dreamof being champions as young chil-

dren?Not really, was the curt answer

from Yew Fai when asked if he everthought hed come this far. In 1996,I would have been happy with anylittle achievement (but) slowly, I gotinto the SEA Games and when you

go for competitions like that, youhave to set targets.

It doesnt seem too long ago whenYew Fai first ventured into the worldof wushu. In fact, he only took it up asa hobby in 1994 when, together withhis brother Yew Yin (a formerMalaysian wushu exponent), asked

their father to introduce them towushu. At that time, their father alsoengaged in traditional wushu as a pas-time.

Two years on, however, the petiteYew Fai discovered that he had thetalent to go much further and thus,started taking part in competitions.Before long, he entered the BukitJalil Sports School.

In the beginning, I just trained

once a week. But from 1996onwards, it had increased to six ses-sions in a week, he said.

In 2000, Yew Fai started trainingfull time as part of the co-curriculumat the Sports School. Hed starttraining at sevenevery morningbefore heading off to his academic

classes between 9am and 2pm. Afterthat, it was back to training. All thehard work paid off, however, when hemade the national team that sameyear.

A year later, Yew Fai donnednational colours at the SEA Games.Barely a couple of years after that,he returned with two bronze medalsat the World Championships. In2004, he bagged a silver medal at

the Asian Championships. Such washis slow and steady rise to worldchampion level.

Having been involved in wushu for11 years now, Yew Fai said that hehas thought of when he would hangup his er, swords. The fact that he hashad two injuries since last year hasalso cast some doubts on his future.

On the bright side, I have thisyear to recuperate as the only major

competition is the Asian Games andmy event is not being featured, so Iwont be taking part, he said.

He also has other ambitions hedlike to go into styling. A few yearsago, when he completed hissecondary school studies, Yew Faitook up tailoring for a while butgave it up to concentrate more onthe sport. He hopes to go into hair-styling in the near future, however.

But for the moment, Yew Fai isfocused on defending his world cham-pion title next year. Despite the injury,he is still training equally hard. He iscurrently in Shanghai with the nation-al team training for a month. He alsohopes to participate in the Olympicsbefore he retires.

That would be nice, he saidadding, even if the medal doesntadd to the Olympics tally. He wasreferring to the InternationalOlympic Committees agreement towushu being included in the 2008Olympic Games in Beijing, althoughthe medals wouldnt be taken intoconsideration.

What was most heartwarming tonote, though, was that Yew Fai isaiming for this glory not for himself,but for the country. This was evidentin his answer to the question about

being able to compete at major tour-naments like the Olympics orCommonwealth Games.

I would love for that opportuni-ty, Yew Fai noted. If that happens,it would significantly increase ourcountrys chance of getting moremedals.

A patriot and a world champion what more could we ask from ayoung man?

8/9/2019 Kung Fu Hustle

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TUESDAY

28 March

2006

COVERSTORY

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KungfufightingFORmanyyears

,inMalaysiaatleast,

wushuwasjustanothermartia

lartnot

unliketaekwandoorkarate.Of

late,how-

ever,ithasslowlystartedgainin

ginter-

nationalrecognitionasacomp

etitive

sport.Itmaynotbean

Olympiceventjust

yet,norisitevenpartofthe

CommonwealthGames,butthe

sport

alreadyhasitsown

WorldChampionship,

AsianChampionshipandofcourse,like

manyotherup-and-comingspo

rts,invi-

tationalevents.Ithasalso,over

thelast

fewyears,attractedtheinteres

tofath-

letesinwesterncountries,andi

sno

longerseenasanexclusiveAsia

nsport.

TheRussiansarealreadyamajo

rcom-

petitorandotherEuropeancoun

triesare

startingtofieldstrongteamsto

o.The

InternationalWushuFederation

isalso

workingonintroducingthespo

rtinthe

aformentionedmajorevents.

Infact,in2008,wushuwillserv

easan

exhibitiongameattheBeijingO

lympics.

Medalswillbehandedoutbutt

he

winningswillnotbecountedint

othe

eventualmedaltallyfortheact

ual

Games.TheFederationisconvin

cedthat

theywillbeabletomakeanap

pearance

insomeformatthenext

CommonwealthGamestoo,con

sidering

thefactthatabout20Common

wealth

countriesareactivelyinvolvedi

nthe

sport.Wushuasaspo

rtdifferssignificantly

fromwhatisconsideredtradit

ional

wushu.Whiletraditionalwush

urefers

tothenumerousdifferentChinesemar-

tialartspractisedinChina,thes

portsver-

sionisknownascontemporar

ywushu

andconventionallyfeature10d

ifferent

competitivecategories(eachfo

rmenand

womenattournaments).

Currently,thedominatingcount

ryfor

wushuisobviouslyChina.Their

team

dominatesboththemensandw

omens

fields.However,Malaysiaisnot

toofaroff

fromChina.Judgingbylastyear

sWorld

Championshipsresults,Malaysi

aissecond

intheworld,withastrongmen

steam,

whileVietnamfollowsclosely(t

heyhavea

prettystrongwomensteam).

(From left) Daoshu silver medalistAng Eng Chong, Nanquan silvermedalist Ho Ro Bin and Jianshu

bronze medalist Lim Yew Fai at theManila Sea Games.