Bryan's Perseverance Pays Off With Defence Of Nanquan Gold

KUCHING, Aug 14 (Bernama) -- The 2024 Malaysia Games (SUKMA) marked an important moment in the career of Melaka's young wushu athlete, Bryan Ti Kai Jie, who showed extraordinary tenacity in overcoming difficult challenges in order to defend his gold medal.

Just last month, the winner of two gold medals at the 2022 World Junior Wushu Championship in Indonesia faced a bitter setback when he was attacked by a fever that lasted 10 days.

As a result, when the 20-year-old athlete returned to a training session, his declining fitness caused him to be unable to complete the event routine as usual, thus putting a lot of pressure on himself.

"When I practice again I can't finish a single routine, it's really challenging, every time I try to finish a routine I'll cough and vomit, so I' was very stressed at that time," he told Bernama after the SUKMA 2024 men's nanquan medal presentation ceremony at the Dewan Wushu SSC is here, today.

Commenting further, Bryan admitted that he refused to let the difficulties hinder his ambition to achieve success in his last SUKMA appearance.

Recognising the deficiencies in his affected preparations, he decided to redouble his efforts.

"I have a strong mental attitude so I train a lot with other people, if others train a full routine, I do two. If others train for 30 minutes, I do one hour," he said, who is also scheduled to perform in the event tomorrow. and nandao on Friday.

Meanwhile, Bryan's strong spirit and dedication is not only limited to the SUKMA Games when he aims to set foot in a bigger tournament at the senior level.

"I want to go to bigger competitions like the SEA Games, the Asian Games or the World University Games. I want to go all out in my wushu career and win for Malaysia," he said.

Earlier, Bryan's agile and neat movement in the men's nanquan event allowed him to carve a name in the history of SUKMA 2024 when he won the first gold medal of the 21st edition of the sports games after collecting the highest score of 9,600 to overcome his 16 other challengers.

The silver medal went to Foo Mun Fei of Perak, while home athlete Fung Tai Leong had to settle for bronze after both shared 9,560 points.

Wushu, a sport that combines elements of martial arts and aesthetics of movement offered a total of 28 gold medals over three days of competition starting today.

-- BERNAMA