KUCHING: Stephanie Ngu Chai Ern ended her Malaysia Games (SUKMA) career in style by winning another gold for Sarawak.
Scoring 9.606 in the women’s qiangshu, she outshone her opponents, leaving Federal Territory and Pulau Pinang contented with the silver and bronze respectively.
According to her coach, Lau Hui Wei, her victory was rather unexpected.
“It was a pleasant surprise for us that she got gold. We expected her to get one gold medal for Sarawak but getting three golds in all the three categories that she participated in is something we didn’t expect.
“She was competing against the national level athletes so we expected that her competition would be tough. Nevertheless, we are glad that she beat the other contingents,” he said.
Ngu has been under Lau’s wings since she was 10 years old, and he was proud that her training finally brought her gold medals.
“Our plan A is for her to join the national team but if it doesn’t go that way, we would go for plan B where she will come to help train other young athletes.
“Of course for us, coaches, we hope that our athletes can do more and achieve a lot more. But either way, the decision of her next plan all depends on her,” he said.
Commenting on the result thus far by the Sarawak Wushu SUKMA team, he said that the team have actually reached their goal.
“But for our association, our plan is to get four gold medals for our Taolu and three medals for Sanda.
“Though that is our first target, what is more important is that our athletes have performed well and did their best,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ngu’s mother Lee Leh Ling, who flew from Sibu, expressed her excitement over her daughter’s win.
“I hope that with her winning, she will be selected to join the national team. She has been involved in wushu since she was 7 before she joined the Kuching wushu team, training at the age of 10 … I can see that her passion is in this sport.
“But I hope she focuses on furthering her studies for now,” she said.
