AIMING TO HIT MORE ‘HEARTS’
Club want to develop a pool of bowmen for the nation
THE baby boomers have their Robin Hood, William Tell and possibly, the Green Arrow. As for Generations X and Y, there is Lord of the Rings’ Legolas of trilogy fame. And as for the Millennials, they most probably look up to The Avengers’ Hawkeye or Oliver Queen (or the titular TV character, Arrow, for the uninitiated).
But all parties concerned will readily agree that they are banking on an angelic celestial being wielding a bow and arrow to hit the bull’s-eye (heart) of their dream partner.
In case one is in the dark of the topic of discussion at hand, all the aforementioned subjects are expert marksmen or sharp-shooting archers.
However, the sport of archery is not that popular, if not glamorous, as compared to its more illustrious counterparts such as football or badminton. In Malaysia, the sport is slowly but surely gaining popularity among the masses, courtesy of the national archers’ feats in world competitions. And helping to elevate the sport are the Archery Club of Multimedia University (MMU) in Malacca.
The club was established in 2004, with promoting to both students and the public alike as one of their primary objectives. Another aim is to hone members’ skills into becoming championship material in competitions.
Club former president Vincent Low Zhao Jie, aged 24, said another one of their aim is to take part in more tournaments and win more honours so that this will resonate positively not only among the members, but also the MMU students and public.
Low, who is from Sungai Mati, Tangkak, in Johor, can be considered as a millennial who was so inspired by Hawkeye and Arrow that he joined the MMU Archery Club in Malacca when he enrolled for a Business Administration degree course in Human Resource Management in 2016.
“I always thought archery was cool when I was growing up watching a staple of TV series and movies. And I have always wanted to try it. So, when I became a MMU student in Malacca, I signed up immediately with the archery club,” said Low, who will be graduating at the end of this year.
He actually wanted to try out the sport as a secondary school student, but the lack of facilities put paid to his plans.
“As archery is considered a rare sport in Muar and Tangkak, not many secondary schools in the two towns have such a club and neither was it an extra-curricular activity,” explained Low, whose term as president ended in June.
He also shed light on the main difference between the public and sporting perceptions of archery.
“Target archery is very different from the archery that is depicted in popular culture. The former is all about accuracy and consistency, and it is not about looking cool as what most people will tend to think,” added Low, who started with the recurve bow to develop his fundamental skills before switching to the compound bow, which is his current status.
As a compound archer, Low has taken part in several inter-varsity tournaments although the experiences garnered were more invaluable than the results.
“I won a bronze medal in the individual category of the intervarsity tournament against University of Notthingham Malaysia Campus (UNMC) last year,” said Low, who together with Teo Kok Cheng (recurve), took part in the UMP (University of Malaysia Pahang) Indoor Open 1.0 in Gambang last December.
The archers at MMU are trained by Mustapha Abdul Latiff, a former Malacca state coach from 2001-2011 who has had 20 years of experience.
The Archery Club MMU Malacca currently have 40 active members and about 70 non-active members. For more information, like the “Archery MMUMelaka” Facebook page.