KUALA LUMPUR – National jujitsu exponent Cassandra J Poyong will undergo intensive training for five weeks in Brazil to gain as much experience as possible in her quest for success at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games from Sept 23 to Oct 8 this year.
The 34-year-old Sabahan is expected to leave for Rio de Janeiro in the middle of this month to train with a Brazilian exponent to improve her fighting techniques and tactics as well as improve her fitness level.
“She has won a lot of competitions over there and recently she just won second place in a high-profile tournament, so I’m really excited to train with her.
“I’m really excited to get to know the Brazilian way of training and to learn why are they so passionate about jujitsu, and hopefully bring back what I’ve learned for use in competition as well as to fellow Malaysians,” she said when met at the training session of the national jujitsu squad here today.
Earlier, Malaysian Chief De Mission (CDM) to the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games Datuk Chong Kim Fatt visited the training session to observe the athletes’ preparations.
Cassandra is no stranger to martial art sport in the country after stealing the spotlight at the 2019 World Masters Jujitsu Championship in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE) by winning the gold medal in the -55 kilogramme (kg) class before bringing home the silver in the same category at the 2019 SEA Games in the Philippines.
In January, she won silver in the -59kg class at European IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championship in Paris and took the bronze in the -57kg class at the Asian Championships in Bangkok a month later.
The Hangzhou Games is her first Asiad debut and Cassandra, who will be competing in the -57kg class, is not about to put pressure on herself where medals are concerned, although she remains optimistic about a good showing.
“I’ve been to a lot of competitions, if you overthink and make it like so serious, I don’t think you are going to do well. So I’m just gonna chill and do whatever it is that I’m doing right now and just go in as an athlete, just me and the mats and just try my best,” she said.
Cassandra said athletes from the Philippines, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan were tough contenders in her category and she expects no favours from them.
Meanwhile, national jujitsu coach Bruno Barbosa said Cassandra, who has been his protege for the past eight years, is capable of creating a surprise in Hangzhou, just as in the 2019 SEA Games.
“Nobody knew Malaysia for jujitsu at the SEA Games at the time when she got second place…and Cassandra keeps scoring in every event that she goes, she always brings a medal back home, so we definitely are preparing as much as we can to bring home a surprise for Malaysia this time,” the 39-year-old Brazilian said. – Bernama
