DESPITE a recurring back problem, willowy wushu taolu (forms) standout Agatha Wong is seriously considering returning for her fifth straight Southeast Asian Games when the 32nd edition of the regional meet is held in Cambodia next year.
“I still desire to compete in the SEA Games, which would be my fifth in Cambodia,” said Wong, who won a gold and silver medal, respectively, in the taijijian (sword) and taijiquan events in the Vietnam SEA Games in Hanoi last month.
Wong, who made her SEA Games debut in 2015 in Singapore, has been coping with a spine injury since 2018, but this did not prevent her from sweeping both taijijian and taijiquan mints when the country hosted the sportsfest in 2019.
She used to have regular therapy on her spine but decided to forego them at the height of the pandemic since it was being done at a hospital, according to the lithe and lovely athlete.
“Now, I don’t go to the hospital but do my therapy exercises for my spine at home. I also tell my coach what I feel when we are into heavy training, unlike before when I would keep quiet when I could no longer withstand the strain,” Wong said. “It only acts up during my period.”
Thanks to her superb metabolism, Wong, 24, said she has no problem in keeping her weight down and weighed only 50 kilos (110 pounds) when she went to Vietnam, compared to her fighting weight of 58 kilos (127 pounds) when she had a golden double in the 2019 SEA Games.
“I don’t know why this is. Nagtataka nga si coach Samson since they can see that I eat a lot. Perhaps this is also due to the hard training and the fact that our gym is hot,” said Wong, referring to the Wushu Federation of the Philippines training facility inside the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex.
