PHNOM PENH, Cambodia—Wushu artist Agatha Wong delivered the early gold medal for Team Philippines Friday morning, May 12, after topping the women’s taijiquan +taijijian event in the 32^ndSoutheast Asian Games at the Chroy Changvar Convention Center here.

Running third following her performance in taijiquan Wednesday, May 11, that netted her 9.580, Wong wowed the judges with her flawless routine in taijijian and scored 9.683 to finish with the highest total of 19.623.

It was her fifth SEAG gold medal after winning one in 2017 Kuala Lumpur (taijiquan), two in 2019 Manila (taijijian and taijiquan), and one in 2021 Vietnam (taijijian).

This year, though, organizers decided to combine the scores of taijiquan and taijijian for the gold medal.

Still, it was a feat that the 24-year-old Wong welcomed as she didn’t expect to make it to the Top 3 despite being the heavy favorite.

“I can’t even expect myself to win because it was so hard to manage mentally being an athlete and a student, so this win came as a surprise,” said Wong, a freshman Medicine student at University of the East-Ramon Magsaysay.

“While everyone was expecting me to win, I was thinking about my backlogs in school. I’m thankful that my school was very lenient with my reason to miss classes because I’m representing the country,” she added.

Malaysia’s Sydney Chin, who topped the taijiquan, came in silver with 19.196, while Brunei’s Basma Lachkar finished bronze in 19.160.