Krista Dyer has won her first medal in her third appearance at the biennial World Wushu Championships in Fort Worth, Texas.

The 35-year-old captured the sanda silver medal after competing in the women’s 65kg division at the championships, which was held at Fort Worth Convention Center Arena from November 16 to 20.

“I am just so pleased I was able to represent my team, my gym, my club and my country well,” an elated Dyer said.

“Overall the competition was super well-organised and Fort Worth was a great place to hold the event.”

The experienced athlete suffered a 2-0 defeat against Romanian Ana-Maria Pal and beat Australian Nicole Lowe-Tarbert by the same margin in her two contests on the mat.

“She [Lowe-Tarbert] was a tough opponent, primarily a Muay Thai practitioner, and like many of us she participates in many combat sports just to get the exposure and keep herself sharp in competition,” Dyer added.

“I got that victory, it was won in the first two rounds. I can’t say I’ve been that happy for a long time.

“The other match was fought against Romania and she gained the victory. She was great at distance control and piecing together combos just to score the points as the judges like to see, so that particular match was quite difficult, although I don’t think I was outclassed.”

Dyer had double reason to celebrate after also securing her spot at next year’s Sanda World Cup to be held in Melbourne, Australia.

Also representing the island at the recent event in Texas was Kaelin Cox, who competed in contemporary wushu taolu and finished 27th in southern broadsword and 29th in the southern open-hand form.

“It was a good time and obviously the team did extremely well,” said Bermuda Sanshou Association president Garon Wilkinson, who coached Dyer and Cox at the event.

“Mainly we were prepared. Krista and Kaelin worked so hard as a team and it was nice to be able to work with them in the build-up.

“We were physically in shape, there’s no doubt about that, and then it was just a matter of being able to execute.”