Kung Fu Hustle
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Transcript of 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?
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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.