Tan Cheong Min Becomes First Malaysian Athlete To Bag 2 Gold Medals At 2023 SEA Games
She won her first gold medal on Wednesday, 10 May, in the Nanquan event.
By Parvinsivam Thirunamakarasu — 12 May 2023, 06:15 PM
World wushu champion Tan Cheong Min has emerged as the first Malaysian to win double gold medals at the 2023 Southeast Asian (SEA) games
According to New Straits Times, the 25-year-old won her first gold medal on Wednesday, 10 May, in the Nanquan event.
She claimed her gold with a phenomenal score of 9.626 points, beating Indonesian athlete Tasya Ayu Puspa Dewi (9.593 points) and Aye Thitsar Myint (9.143 points) from Myanmar.
Today, 12 May, the Melaka-born clinched her second gold medal in the women's Nangun-Nandao combined event reports, Bernama.
A grand total of 19.16 points secured her the first place on the podium.
The silver medal went to Vietnam's Phan Thi Tu Binh (18.413 points), while Myanmar athlete Aye Thitsar Myint (18.303 points) settled for bronze.
The two-time world champion said the victory made her long awaited debut at the SEA Games worthwhile
"The moment I won the gold today, I screamed because I couldn't believe I won the second gold, and secondly, my mission here is over," she told Bernama.
Cheong added that she felt nervous during the event because a mistake here could affect her ranking at the Asian Games.
Following her first gold medal earlier this week, Cheong revealed that some people made fun of her decision to participate in the biennial sports event
She told Bernama that the justification given was that she had already made a name for herself on the world stage, so the SEA games were not up to her standards.
"For me, in Wushu, the level of all the countries competing (in the SEA games) is very high, so it doesn't matter that I have won the previous World Championship, everything starts from zero again when I go to compete," she explained.
