Nurdiana strikes gold in second attempt at PON

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Palembang

The sounds of her blade rhymed with her movements when she tiptoed on the floor and bent her body forward to strike her blade to the air before leaping forward in a near perfect performance before she bowed to the jury at the end of her action.

Supporters of the North Sumatra's wushu athlete Nurdiana cheered by clapping their hands and shouting her name, feeling confident that she had just put in a gold medal performance.

Still catching her breath with a smile pasted on her face, she awaited before the jury announced her score of 9.06 points, which meant she topped the scoring to win a gold in the daoshu category.

"I am glad that I could fulfill my target in the National Games by bringing home one gold medal," Nurdiana told The Jakarta Post.

"This is my second time competing in PON, so that's why I expected that I should be able to make some notable achievement here," said the 23-year-old.

Four years ago in the wushu competition held in Surabaya, she won silver in the daoshu event.

She added the competitions were far tighter in this PON as there were many other good younger yet strong contenders. Therefore, she said, she was relieved that she had reached her target on the first day of the competition.

She said there were many young wushu athletes nowadays compared to several years ago since most of the participants in daoshu events were young talented athletes.

Aside from competing in the daoshu event, she also competes in changquan and combat events.

Born in Jambi on June 14, 1983, Nurdiana started her wushu training when she was eleven years old.

"I was interested in wushu after seeing those kungfu films on TV," she said with a laugh.

Mentioning famous Chinese kungfu actor Jet Li as her idol, Nurdiana joined a wushu club in her hometown in Medan to follow her dreams.

Despite very little encouragement from parents and brothers, she said she had decided to take up the sport.

Her hard work makes her a wushu athlete to be reckoned with. She has been a regular member of the national team.

She won a gold at the Asia-Africa International Wushu tournament in Cairo, Egypt in 2002.

Later in the same year, she participated in the Asian Games held in Busan, South Korea and followed it up by taking part in the 2003 SEA Games in Hanoi, Vietnam.

In Busan, she took part in the women's changquan event but only finished tenth, however, in Vietnam, she had better luck by bringing home a bronze medal.

Currently, Nurdiana is still studying information management at the Mikroskill University in Medan.