SHELDON DIAS
PEDDEM: Samba colours were finally on display at the Lusofonia Games, but instead of the earlier announced number of seven, there were just two samba warriors.
Marcus Vinicus Alves, Technical Director from the Brazilian Wushu confederation said “The Brazilian Olympic association had decided not to participate in the Games for reasons unknown to me. However as president of the Brazilian Wushu Confederation I requested the BOC to send a wushu team as wushu will be held for the first time in the Lusofonia Games. They agreed but said they would not be able to finance us as all the money is being used towards the upcoming 2016 Olympic Games to be held in Brazil.”
“We have done a lot for wushu in Brazil” said Marcus. “Out of 27 states, 25 have state level wushu associations. We have one national competition for which each of the states hold qualification rounds,” he added.
Marcus also added “Some players are sponsored by the government, but Paul Sankaka (coach), two players Margareth Midori Sako and Brandon Porfiro Da Silva and myself have paid $1700 each to come for this competition, solely for our love for wushu and to help promote the sport.”
Margareth said “I am happy with my performance and I’m happy with my gold medal in women’s nan dao.”
While Brendan stated “The level of competition is very high, and very well organized. I improved on my yesterday’s performance and I am happy with my gold medal victory in the men’s Gun shu.”
Paul added “We are all national federation players but have used our own finances to come here. We would have loved to come with more players but it was not possible due to financial constraints. But we are happy to do our bit for wushu.”
