ARCHERS ALWAYS IN THE HUNT
Juwaidi and Fatin bag gold in the mixed team event
DEVINDER SINGH devinder@nst.com.my
NOT for the first time have the national compound archers punched above their weight in winning a third gold medal at the Sea Games yesterday.
Juwaidi Mazuki and Fatin Nurfatehah Mat Salleh brought the curtains down on the compound competition in Bukit Jalil by winning the mixed team event, defeating Myanmar 152-142 in the final.
The three gold medals are just one fewer than their 2015 haul in Singapore after Fatin relinquished the women’s individual title while Juwaidi lost in the men’s individual final.
Expressing no regrets with the two gold medals which escaped Malaysia’s clutches, Juwaidi believes the compound archers have done more than enough to get more support, principally by being included in the Podium Programme ahead of next year’s Asian Games.
“I have no regrets about not winning the individual final because that event was not our aim,” said Juwaidi, 27, who led the men’s team to the gold medal on Thursday.
“We came back strongly to win in three other team events which made up for not winning the individual events.
“Now I hope we have opened the eyes of more people with our performances here and we hope we can get a compound archer into the Podium Programme because we know the type of benefits there in terms of competition, services and equipment.”
Fatin, who also won a second gold medal after success in the women’s team event, concurred.
“Getting into the Podium Programme will helps us gain more experience and maturity,” said Fatin, 26. “I think we have done enough to convince people and I hope for the best for the compound team.”
Aside from the success at the Sea Games, the women’s compound team also won the World Cup in 2015, the country’s firstever title at the tournament.
Now-retired Zaki Mahazan also made the semi-finals of the men’s individual compound event at the 2014 Asian Games in further evidence of the archers’ case.
There was a touch of fortune in the pair’s win at the Synthetic Turf Field yesterday after a disastrous mistake by Myanmar’s Ye Min Swe, who inadvertently shot into the target of his teammate Aung Ngeain in the first end, virtually handed the gold medal to Malaysia.
With the pressure off, the Malaysian pair coasted to victory, which was sealed by Fatin in the penultimate shot, leaving Juwaidi to finish up with a nine.
“Just because they made a mistake it did not mean we had won,” said Juwaidi, who also won the mixed team gold with Fatin in 2015.
“We had to control our emotions and not let it affect our shooting. We maintained our composure even though we did not always shoot our best. But we did enough to win.”
With the Sea Games done, Fatin and teammate Nurul Syazhera Asmi left yesterday for Taipei to compete at the World University Games.
The mixed team event brought an end to the compound competition in which Malaysia won three gold medals, one silver and one bronze.
The archery competition resumes tomorrow with the recurve events.