For the 36-year-old national coach, the third-placed finish was just reward for all the sacrifice and sweat the pair had poured in during training for the Oct 29-Nov 8 tournament in Vietnam.
Woo and Lee finished joint-third in the women's single weapon vs weapon event with Indonesia last Saturday, coming up with a score of 9.40 at the Trinh Hoai Duc Gymnasium.
With the other medals one silver and five bronze coming from pencak silat, Li has every reason to be pleased with the result in what was the team's first medal in a senior outing after his two years on the job.
"I am very excited to have won bronze since it was really difficult. This is definitely my biggest achievement in Brunei," he said upon arrival at the Brunei International Airport with the national contingent yesterday. "I believe we have the chance to win better medals next time. Gold? I believe we can.
"Woo and Lee trained a lot for it. Everyday, morning and evening. A lot of hard work went into winning this medal, they even injured themselves with the sword, cutting their skin and drawing blood," he added.
They were initially not going to Vietnam since the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports' national selection and evaluation committee did not feel they met the required benchmarks.
Li called it an opportunity missed at the time, especially since the team were told that they would not be at the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Laos from Dec 9-18 as well.
But a last-minute turnaround meant rushed tickets for the wushu team, and they justified their place on the flight.
Courtesy from Brunei Times
