Bronze closes proceedings

THE national men’s compound team added a bronze medal to the collection of three previous silver medals in bringing Malaysia’s campaign at the Archery Asia Cup to a close in Bangkok yesterday.

There was also a promising display by the country’s success-starved women’s archers, who posted an uplifting victory over a Russian team who had one 2016 Rio De Janeiro silver medallist in their trio.

After receiving a first round bye, the men’s compound team of Juwaidi Mazuki, M. Khambeswaran and Zulfadhli Ruslan defeated Vietnam 230-228 in the quarter-finals before going down 232-230 to India in the semifinals. The Malaysians recovered to beat Singapore 232-227 in the bronze medal playoff.

The Malaysian women’s recurve team made a surprising run to the semi-finals before being halted in their tracks 6-0 by India.

The sixth-seeded Malaysian trio of Nur Afisa Abdul Halil, Nur Aliya Ghapar and Loke Shin Hui defeated an erratic Thailand 6-2 in the first round before upsetting a fancied Russian side, who only included one member of their silver medal-winning Olympic trio in Tuyana Dashidorzhieva, 6-2 in the quarter-finals.

Vietnam, featuring two archers from their 2015 Sea Games gold medal-winning team, denied Malaysia a bronze by winning a tie-break 26-25 after splitting four sets with a win each and two draws in the playoff.

In the men’s recurve team event, the trio of Khairul Anuar Mohamad, Haziq Kamaruddin and Akmal Nor Hasrin downed Bangladesh 6-0 in the first round before succumbing to India 6-2 in the last eight.

The Malaysian women’s compound team of Saritha Cham Nong, Fatin Nurfatehah Mat Salleh and Nurul Syazhera Asmi were ousted by Myanmar 30-26 in a tie-break after the quarter-final ended in a 222-222 tie.

On Friday, the national archers claimed three silver medals through Khairul and Juwaidi in the men’s recurve and compound individual respectively and Juwaidi and Fatin in the compound mixed team.