Defending Asian Games jiu-jitsu champion Sung Kira Sung (26, Seoul City Jiu-Jitsu) is sweating profusely as she seeks a second straight title. “Of course, my goal is to win the title like I did five years ago,” said Sung, who is competing in the women’s 63kg jiu-jitsu category at the Hangzhou Asian Games, “and I will come back with a dominant performance and a gold medal.”
Jiu-jitsu was first included as an official sport at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games. Sungira dominated the women’s 62-kilogram category at the event, reaching the top of the podium. She scored a whopping 58 points from the round of 32 to the final. The only two points she lost were in the final.
“There are a lot of women’s athletes around the world whose skills have grown rapidly,” Sungira said before the finalizing ceremony of the Korean team. It won’t be easy to win by such a large margin at the Asian Games,” she said, adding, “I will try to play without conceding as much as possible.”
The title of the first-ever Asian Games jiu-jitsu champion didn’t come easy for him; he tore his ACL in his first match at the Games five years ago. It was a major injury that required surgery after the tournament. He was in so much pain that he could barely walk, but he played through it to the final, where he won and was crowned champion. It was a result of her mental strength and the responsibility of representing her country in her first official event.
“I’ve been training at the Jincheon Athletes’ Village for the first time since I became a member of the national jiu-jitsu team. The injury management and rehabilitation are systematic now, so I don’t have to worry about it,” he said, adding, “Fortunately, my injuries are healed and I don’t have any problems.”
He originally trained in boxing before turning to jiu-jitsu in 2013, when it was considered a more obscure martial art than it is today. He had to pay for private training to be able to compete in jiu-jitsu. Now, along with karate and krash, jiu-jitsu has been designated as a newly supported sport by the Korean Olympic Committee to improve national performance, allowing athletes to train in an athletes’ village with a variety of exercise programs.
“I’m in really good shape because I’m training in a good environment,” Sungira said. “When I’m outside the athletes’ village, I always train alone, but now I have a lot of teammates to practice with, which is very helpful.”
He often uses words like ‘overwhelming’ and ‘unbeatable’. His style of play is one of perfection. At the Asian Games five years ago, he won the title after conceding just two points, but he said, “I was disappointed because I wanted to keep a clean sheet.”메이저사이트
Sungira finished runner-up at the JJIF World Championships in Mongolia last July. She lost in the final to Shamma Alkabani of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). “My training is focused on improving on what I lacked at the World Championships,” said Sungira, adding that she is determined to make it to the top once more at the Asian Games.