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First step: Nguyen Manh Quyen of Viet Nam competes in the men's wushu gunshu at the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou in which he won a bronze medal. Macau's Jia Rui won gold followed by South Korean Lee Jonq-chan for silver. — AFP/VNA Photo |
Quyen scored 19.38 points in the daoshu and gunshu events during the all-around competition at the Nansha Gymnasium to claim the bronze, the first medal for the Vietnamese sport delegation which failed to pocket a single medal on the first day of the Games on Saturday despite strong contenders.
"After I came in third place in the daoshu event I was confident that I would be in the top three and I did it," Quyen said.
Jia Rui made history yesterday by winning's Macau's first-ever Asian Games gold medal when he pocketed victory with 19.61 points in the wushu all-around for the former Portuguese colony.
South Korea's Lee Jong-chan took silver with 19.42 points.
Macau has competed in the ASIAD since 1990 but until Jia's breakthrough performance had only ever won five silver and 10 bronze.
The 23-year-old said it was a proud moment for him and his homeland.
"The gold medal belongs not only to me, but to Macau," he said.
"It is not easy to win a gold medal. Wushu is a hobby for many people in Macau and this will be a big step for the sport at home."
Jia, who also competed at the last ASIAD in Doha four years ago, said just being here was a dream.
"Doha was my first Asian Games and it was like a dream because as a child, I watched the Asian Games on TV and felt it was far away. Now, I'm living in the athlete village and I am part of the atmosphere."
Lee praised the man from Macau.
"The Asian Games are competitive – all my opponents were competitive, but the toughest one to beat was Jia Rui." — VNS
