JP/Arief Suhardiman
Bruce Lee fan and wushu athlete Aldy Lukman won gold in the men’s gunshu final of the taolu competition on Wednesday.
Gunshu is an art performance using a staff, which is one of the competition forms in the taolu (art form) event of wushu.
It was the first gold in the second SEA Games outing for the 21-year-old self-professed fan of Bruce Lee.
His reverence for his screen idol encouraged him to take up martial arts at the age of 10.
“My coach hadn’t set me a target to win gold, but I had my own of at least getting into the top three,”
he said.
He promised to donate part of his Rp 200 million bonus for winning gold to the Kusuma Wushu Indonesia Academy, where he first learned martial arts.
The final was a close match and could have gone either way, with opponent Ang Eng Chong posing a tough challenge. Aldy scored a total of 9.69 and 9.70 points in his two performances, against Chong’s 9.70 and 9.67.
Aldy’s triumph was not mirrored by compatriot Lindswell in the women’s taijijian, where she fell short of her tag as favorite, which she gained after winning the recent World Championship in Toronto.
The 18-year-old performed nearly perfectly in the final, scoring 9.70 points to Malaysian Chai Fong Ying’s 9.66.
However, Lindswell’s 9.60 in her first appearance on Tuesday was her undoing, with Chai scoring 9.66 for a higher aggregate.
“Lindswell performed perfectly today,” said coach Sandry Liong.
“However, she was shaky a bit yesterday, so she couldn’t outscore Chai, whose performance was more consistent.”
Malaysia picked up three gold medals, one silver and three bronze from wushu competition.
Their other gold medalists included Jack Chang in the men’s taijijian/taijiquan and Diana Bong in the women’s nanquan.
The Indonesian wushu squad attained its target of two gold medals, following Susyana Tjhan’s victory in the women’s changquan Tuesday.
The squad added three silver medals through Aldy and Jahannes Bie in the men’s duilian and Heriyanto in the men’s nanquan.
Friska Ria Wibowo won bronze in the women’s 45-kilogram sanshou.
