Wushu exponent Jowen Lim clinches SEA Games silver, misses out on gold by 0.001

HANOI: They stood separated by several inches atop the rostrum at the Cau Giay gymnasium on Friday (May 13), but what differentiated Malaysia's Clement Ting and Singapore's Jowen Lim on the field was the slightest of margins. 

In this case, a score of 0.001.

Lim clinched Singapore's first wushu medal of the 31st SEA Games in Hanoi, with an official score of 9.70. He was narrowly edged out by Malaysia's Ting for gold.

"This is the nature of Wushu. The scoring differences are always very small ... three or four or five decimal places. So what we've got to do is showcase our best and let the judges decide," Lim told reporters.

"For Wushu, there are two main parts, the difficulty of the jumps and the technical side like our movements. I felt what I was lacking compared to the gold medallist was probably on the technical side, because probably the jumps-wise we were on par."

At the same time, Lim noted that he was pleased with his showing and to be able to get on the podium. In the last edition of the Games, he finished sixth in the same event.

"I'm actually very happy with my performance. A little bit nervous because it's the first competition in three years," said Lim, who also has a 2017 gold in the event to his name.

"To me, a podium is always good enough for me. Obviously, I would love to get a gold medal for Singapore but for me, silver is more than enough," he added.

Later on Friday, Chan Jun Kai took bronze for Singapore in the men's taijiquan finals.

With Lim's silver and Chan's bronze, Singapore’s medal tally jumps to 10, with one gold, five silvers and four bronzes.

Silat exponent Iqbal Abdul Rahman won Singapore’s first gold on Wednesday when he beat Thailand’s Ilyas Sadara in the artistic men’s tunggal (singles) finals.

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