Nurdiana strikes gold in second attempt at PON

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.