NAYPYIDAW — Malaysian wushu exponent Phoon Eyin caused a stir and created sporting history for her country when she won Malaysia’s 1,000th gold medal of the South-east Asian Games since 1959 yesterday.

The 17-year-old schoolgirl clinched the women’s Qiangshu (spear) crown at the Wunna Theidki Indoor Stadium after collecting 9.67 points with her energetic performance. That was enough to edge pre-Games favourite Thuy Vi Duong (9.59 points) of Vietnam into second place. Indonesia’s Thalia Lovita Sosrodjojo took the bronze with 9.40 points.

Eyin’s win came as a surprise as she was just making her SEA Games debut this year. Although the Bukit Jalil Sports School student, who only joined the national team last year, is a newly-crowned world champion, her world title, won last month, was for the changquan discipline.

Phoon was happy with her performance but was clearly stunned when she was declared the winner.

“I am totally overwhelmed by the occasion. I really don’t have words to describe my happiness. I just went in and did my normal routine like how my coach had instructed,” said the Bukit Jalil Sports School student. “Since this is the 1,000th gold medal for the country since 1959, I dedicate it to all Malaysians and especially to my team-mates and everyone in the team for helping and supporting me.”

Only two other countries have won more than 1,000 SEA Games golds — Thailand (1,887) and Indonesia (1,602). Singapore have won 710 gold medals to date since 1959. AGENCIES