By REDintern Ronnie Yeo
NTU women’s team won gold in Dui Lian (choreographed sparring). (Photo 1 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
ITE College Central MacPherson, Saturday, October 27, 2012 — The Nanyang Technological University (NTU) were crowned overall Wushu champions in the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) Invitational Traditional Wushu Championships. NTU finished with nine gold, nine silver and three bronze medals, to put an end to the three-year winning streak of Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP).
NP came in second overall with seven gold, two silver and eight bronze medals while Singapore Polytechnic (SP) were third with four gold, one silver and five bronze.
The championship involved all the schools that traditionally take part in the Institute-Varsity-Polytechnic (IVP) Games.
“I think everybody performed well today, we outperformed ourselves during the competition. We will continue to work hard for next year,” said Clement Lok, captain of the NTU Wushu team. Clement won three medals — one gold, one silver and one bronze — in the competition.
“It was not the best results, but it was still decent. Hopefully, we will come back stronger next year,” said Toh Zhi Hong, captain of Singapore Polytechnic (SP), who won the gold medal in the long weapons event.
NTU sent two teams to dominate the “Dui Lian” (choreographed sparring) event, clinching both the gold and the silver medals with a score of 8.53 and 8.43 respectively. The girls’ team edged the boys’ team by 0.1 points with their ferocious yet harmonious beats, bringing the crowd to the edge of their seats. Republic Polytechnic (RP) and National University of Singapore (NUS) tied for third place with their speedy and well-choreographed routines.
“It was a combination of both luck and skills. The boys’ team was obviously better than us, but we managed to get things done in the end,” said Shirley Yeo, a member of the NTU girls’ team. Shirley also won a gold medal in the Traditional Chang Quan event and a bronze medal for the Group Weapons event.
NP clinched the Ji Ti Quan Shu (Group Fist) gold medal with a score of 8.38, putting up an excellent performance with their explosive jumps and synchronized movements. NUS, with their fast-paced music and powerful moves, tied with ITECC for second place while SMU and SP tied for third place.
“I think we did well, better than before, partly because we had more time to train for the group event this year,” said Zhang Tian, a member of the NUS team. Zhang Tian also won another silver medal in the Traditional Chang Quan event.
Meanwhile, it was Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) who came in first in the Ji Ti Qi Xie (Group Weapons) event with their Group Dao Shu (broadsword) routine with a score of 8.38. It was an exciting and narrow victory over NP, who scored 8.36 with their Group Pu Dao (Polearm) routine. Both teams put up eye-opening performances in the closing event with a combination of flips and energetic movements from their weapons. NTU came in third with their graceful Group Jian (Sword) despite several hiccups during the routine.
“The idea of this competition is to raise awareness for Traditional Wushu and I am glad to see that this annual competition, started by NTU in 2006, has come so far,” said Mr. Winston Ko, coach of ITE Macpherson, and the chairman of the organizing committee for the competition.
“I would also like to thank and congratulate all competitors for their participation,” he added.
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