Khairul, Fatin are only survivors

ONLY Khairul Anuar Mohamad and Fatin Nurfatehah Mat Salleh survived the opening rounds of the World Archery Championships in Mexico City on Wednesday.

Of the 12 Malaysians who started the knockout stages in four individual events, 10 crashed out in the first two rounds.

That left men’s recurve archer Khairul and women’s compound archer Fatin to carry the Malaysian flag into the third round.

Khairul, who finished Monday’s qualifying in 21st position, won both his matches in a shoot-off, first taking a 10-7 win over Austrian Dominik Irrasch and then edging Australia’s Taylor Worth after being closest to the centre when both shot nines.

Fatin, making her second appearance at the world meet, defeated Jody Vermuelen of the Netherlands 144-142 to advance to the third round after receiving a first-round bye.

Rookie archer Sazatul Nadhira Zakaria was eliminated in the second round by Denmark’s Tanja Jensen 144-140 while Saritha Cham Nong did not get past the first round.

The men’s compound trio of Lee Kin Lip, Juwaidi Mazuki and Zulfahdli Ruslan all made early exits as did women recurve archers Nur Aliya Ghapar, Loke Shin Hui and Nur Afisa Abdul Halil.

On Tuesday, Malaysia exited the men’s recurve team event in the quarter-finals after a 5-1 defeat to South Korea having squeezed past Mexico 5-4 in the first round.

Malaysia did not qualify for any of the other three team events.

Khairul and Nur Aliya, meanwhile, take on Germany in the mixed recurve team event in the first round today. Devinder Singh