The duo of Faustina Woo Wai Sii and Lee Ying Shi fell short of striking gold after they finished second in the women's Group A (16-18 years old) Duilian (double broadsword and spear play) yesterday in the 3rd World Junior Wushu Championships at the Jurong East Sports & Cultural Centre in Singapore.

The Bruneian pair finished with 9.45 points from the judges losing out to the 9.51 points awarded to Vietnam. India took the bronze with 9.44 points.

"We're disappointed with the result as we were aiming to win the gold," said Woo, in an interview with The Brunei Times, when contacted yesterday.

"It may be because we lacked training to prepare for the event after competing at the Asian Games (in Guangzhou, China in late November) which didn't have the dual event," she added.

Expectations were high for the pair who bagged the Sultanate's only silver medal at the 25th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Vientiane.

Last year, they won the bronze at the 5th Asian Junior Wushu Championships in Macau in June and the 3rd Asian Indoor Games in Vietnam in December.

More recently, they captured the gold medal at the 4th World Traditional Wushu Championship at Wudang Mountain of Hubei Province's Shiyan City in China in October.

Nonetheless, their streak for a podium finish remains intact having bag a medal in every competition that they are paired up.

The result means that the national wushu team will return to the Sultanate with a total medal haul of one silver and one bronze medals.

The only other medal came from Woo after she appeared on the podium in the women's Group A Nanquan (southern fist) on Tuesday, losing out to eventual gold medalists China and runner-up Canada.

A total of seven athletes with Abdul Rahim Johari, Karyn Ho Jia Yin, the trio of siblings Mohd Sufi Shayiran, Mohd Adi Shayiran and Mohd Adi Salihin Roslan being the others all aged between 10-16 years old represented the country at the December 4-10 competition.

The Brunei wushu exponents were using the tournament in Singapore to hone their skills and gain experience in preparations for next year's 26th SEA Games in Indonesia.

Courtesy from Brunei Times