KUALA LUMPUR, May 2 — Shortlisted to represent the country at the SEA Games is a rare, exciting turn, especially for national back-up athletes to showcase their abilities on the international stage.
For national wushu back-up athlete Mandy Cebelle Chen, 19, the opportunity to perform on the SEA Games stage is her childhood dream besides looking forward to impress spectators at the Cầu Giấy Sports Hall in Hanoi, Vietnam, in May.
Cebelle is adamant about not wasting her debut appearance especially in merely using the sporting spectacle as exposure to gain experience.
On the contrary, the architecture student at a local private university wants to stamp her mark by recording a perfect routine in the women’s taijiquan and taijijian events, as well as closing down the space for the jury to deduct points in the sport’s subjective grading.
“This is my first appearance at the SEA Games and the target is of course to deliver my best, let alone participating in two events at the same time at this games,” she told Bernama.
First dabbling in wushu at the age of 12, Cebelle said to strengthen the quality of her routine, she also underwent training with coach Loh Choon How who was the two-gold medallist (in men’s taijijian and taijiquan) of the 2019 SEA Games in Manila.
“I also made preparations to study the opponent’s routines through video to identify whether it can be adapted to my own routine to strengthen my performance,” she said.
Cebelle won gold (Taichiquan) and silver (Taichi jian/sword) medals at the 9th Asian Junior Wushu Championships held in Gumi, South Korea in 2017.
She also won two gold and one silver medal at the 2018 Taijiquan World Championships in Burgas, Bulgaria.
— Bernama
