Agatha Wong quickly shows she’s still SEA Games wushu queen

Philippine bet Agatha Wong wins the gold medal in women’s wushu Taijijian at Cua Giay Gymnasium in Hanoi Vietnam. SEA GAMES POOL

HANOI — Clad in shining white satin, adorned by red and gold, and clasping a gleaming sword with tassel, the Philippines’ wushu queen has arrived to claim the 31st Southeast Asian Games throne.

Stunned by an upset in one of her favorite events, three-time champion Agatha Wong claimed the women’s taijijian (sword) gold medal on Sunday beating the charge of two Vietnamese hot on her heels.

Yet true to her sport, the 23-year-old Wong displayed grace amid victory.

“I didn’t feel that I was the athlete to beat I feel that we are on the same level because you may be a good athlete but if you make a mistake that’s the difference.”

She certainly didn’t do that much wrong in her routine that garnered her 9.71 points. Huyan Tram Thi (9.70) and Trang Tran Thi (9.69) settled for silver and bronze, respectively.

One more thing Wong succeeded in doing was containing her emotions during her performance watched by full-sized crowd at Cau Giay Gymnasium.

“I was so scared because I felt the SEA Games was too soon for me, usually it’s held in December now they held it in May,” said Wong. “Every day in training I was telling myself to do my best for this moment.”

Counting the silver she won in taijiquan (no weapon), Wong picked up her second medal despite just two months of face-to-face training.

“That’s why I’m very thankful that may be just silver, it could be just a bronze. But it’s still a medal,” said Wong, who became the face of the sport after a double gold performance in the 2019 staging.

Now all Wong wanted to do was go home. “I miss my family, so much, I was away on bubble training for two months.”

She deserves it.