Kaelin Cox and Geraldine Sidders did Bermuda proud after securing gold medals in all of their events at the Presidential Wushu Cup in Maryland last week.

Cox topped the podium in the southern first, southern broadsword and southern staff disciplines and Sidders in the long fist and staff.

Despite his dominant display on the mat, elite athlete Cox emphasised there is still room for growth.

“Even though I came away with medals in my own category, there are things I still need to work on,” he told The Royal Gazette.

“I had good moments and bad moments in my performances. Nevertheless, I learn each time I compete and gain experience in my sport of Wushu Kung Fu.”

National Junior Athlete Scholarship Programme recipient Sidders achieved success despite having to compete with a sore wrist.

“I was a little bit nervous going into the weekend because I had suffered an injury to my wrist,” she said.

“I was having a hard time moving it and applying force and pressure, so I had felt that it was going to be a major setback while competing.

“However, I managed to push through the pain with the help of painkillers and competed to the best of my ability.”

Garon Wilkinson, the Bermuda Sanshou Association president and coach, hailed both athlete’s performancest, which served as a warm up for October’s Pan American Wushu Championships in Argentina.

“Kaelin performed strong in three events, which all had good areas and he received deductions in all three for errors,” he said.

“At this level of competition your focus just has to be really dialled in, and any sort of misjudgement of a jump or a landing can really have those deductions add up. But Kaelin is a veteran in the sport and knows exactly where he made errors.

“He received a lot of compliments from other coaches that’s been helping us in our journey. They said we’re certainly moving in the right direction, so that was positive.

“The Presidential Wushu Cup served as great preparation for Geraldine’s summer training, which gave us an idea of where she is.

“Definitely some areas where we’ve seen improvement over the last few months since her performance at the Junior Worlds.

“Still some things that we need to improve on, but definitely moving in the right direction, so pleased with Geraldine’s performance.

“Looking forward to both athletes performing at the Pan American Wushu Championships in October, and joining our Sanda athletes and a few other of our Taolu athletes as well.”