Dương Thúy Vi of Việt Nam grabs the first gold medal in the women’s qiangshu for the country at the World Wushu Championship in Russia on Saturday. - Photo baomoi.com |
Vi was pitted against 16 other athletes from various countries in her category, which saw her take the highest score of 9.64 points on Saturday.
Seo Heeju of South Korea came second with 9.63 points and Keiko Yamaguchi of Japan finished third with 9.65 points.
It was Vi’s second world title after her triumph in the same event in 2013.
She also took part in the 2015 tournament but could only bag a silver.
Vi is currently the best wushu taolu (performance) athlete in Việt Nam.
She won two gold medals at the Malaysian SEA Games in August. She is also the only Vietnamese who has become a champion at the Asian Games so far.
On Friday, Vi competed in the changquan (long fist) event but failed to make it to the top three.
Apart from her gold, Việt Nam also secured a silver in the women’s taijijian (tai chi sword form) through Trần Thị Khánh Ly, who scored 9.55 points.
She was behind Chen Suijin of Hong Kong, who had 9.68 points. The bronze went to Japanese Saito Shiho with 9.53 points.
Another Vietnamese Trần Thị Minh Huyền was at fifth with 9.45 points.
In other events, Nguyễn Thục Anh ranked sixth in the women’s nanquan (southern boxing style) and Trần Xuân Hiệp placed ninth in the men’s jianshu (performance with sword).
Việt Nam currently stand third in the medal tally.
China are on top with four golds. Hong Kong are second winning one gold, one silver and one bronze.
The world championship will continue until tomorrow.
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