It was a golden strike by national wushu athlete Diana Bong Siong Lin when she fulfilled a forecast at the opening of the wushu event by bagging Malaysia's first gold medal in the 27th SEA Games near Naypyitaw today.

The 28-year-old collected 9.70 points to beat eight others in the Nanquan event which was held at the Wunna Theikdi A Closed Stadium.

The silver medal for the event was won by Vietnamese athlete Minh Phuong Bui who collected 9.68 points, merely 0.03 points over Malaysia's Cheau Xuen Tai who clinched the bronze.

Another bronze for Malaysia in wushu came from Phoo Eyin in the women's Jianshu event when she scored 9.46 points.

The gold medal for the event was won by Thuy Vi Duang (Vietnam) who collected an overall 9.7 points, or a difference of only 0.01 point, to beat the silver medallist from Myanmar, Sandy Yoo.

Bong said initially, she was a bundle of nerves as she shouldered the challenge to win the country's first gold medal. Nevertheless, the feeling of nervousness dissipated when she stepped into the arena.

"In the arena, I tried to focus on the competition fully and felt happy when I managed to pass the one minute and 20 second duration," she told reporters today.

Headache in the morning

The athlete from Sungai Tapang, Kuching said she had a headache in the morning but it did not affect her focus when performing in the arena.

Bong said mental strength was important for every athlete and she was able to overcome any problem, including diarrhoea since three days ago.

Prior to this, she won the gold medal in the women's nanquan-nandao-nangun combined event at the SEA Games in Thailand in 2007, and repeated the success at the SEA Games in Laos in 2009, through the women's nangun-nandao combined event.

However, luck was not on her side at the SEA Games in Indonesia, two years ago, when she managed only a bronze through the women's nandao-nangun combined event.

Bong said she was happy with her success today, as she had redeemed her failure in Indonesia.

"The grief in failing to clinch the gold medal in Indonesia is now over and I feel very happy today, after waiting for two years to erase my disappointment," she added.

- Bernama