KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 28 — The country’s top eight wushu exponents who competed in the 2023 World Wushu Championships held in Texas, United States last week have qualified for the 2024 Wushu World Cup in Japan, next year.

Wushu Federation of Malaysia (WFM) President Datuk Chong Kim Fatt said the exponents had qualified to compete in the World Cup after securing the top eight positions in the world.

"The eight exponents involved are currently ranked among the top eight in the world while the criteria to compete in next year’s World Cup is that they need to be in the top 10 in the world. Their achievements have also been encouraging recently and achieved the KPI,” he said after the Sports Working Committee Meeting at the National Sports Council (NSC) here today.

For the record, Malaysia won the only gold medal in the Wushu World Championships through Wong Weng Son in the men’s Changquan event and among those who will follow him to the 2024 World Cup are Sydney Chin Sy Xuan, Clement Ting and Loh Ying Ting.

Meanwhile, Kim Fatt said the eight exponents will also be listed as Malaysia’s representatives in the 2025 SEA Games in Thailand.

Kim Fatt said the WFM has already discussed a programme for the eight exponents to ensure that they are able to win gold medals at the upcoming competitions and maintain their excellent streak in the future.

"We announced this early so that it would be easy for our exponents to arrange their schedules, for example study or holiday schedules including training. To go to the World Cup, only the 10 best athletes in the world are eligible to participate, and all our exponents have indeed automatically qualified,” he said.

Commenting further, Kim Fatt also shared about WFM’s plans that will make a selection of athletes to be included in the Pelapis (Podium second tier) Programme which will be held at the NSC around February or March next year. — Bernama