69 students for Sibu indoor archery championship
SIBU: A total of 69 students from throughout the state have entered for the inaugural Sibu Students Indoor Archery Championship at Sibu Archery Centre on Sept 23.
The Sarawak State Sports Council ( MSNS), Sibu Division Archery Association ( SDAA) and Sibu Archery Centre ( SAC) are jointly organising the event to promote the sport and to raise the standard of play.
SAC manager Desmond Wong told a press conference on Wednesday that the competition would serves as a platform for archery enthusiasts to foster ties.
He was joined by MSNS central zone chief Gloria James Juat and SDAA secretary Eric Tiong.
Of the competitors, 26 are from King’s Club and Xtune Club of Miri, 10 from Bintulu ATMA, five from Sarikei and one each from Kapit and Lawas. The rest are from Sibu.
The competition, only for nonSukma players, is divided into three categories – U-12, U-15 and U-18.
The U-12 category attracted 24 players, U-15 (28) and U-18 (17).
Wong said there would be 48 winners altogether, with the overall champion to take home RM300 plus a medal, first runnerup ( RM200 and a medal), 3rd and 4th winners ( RM100 each), 5th to 8th winners ( RM70 each) and 9th to 24th ( RM50 each).
Recurve bow will be used at the tournament, and archers are to shoot six arrows for the ranking round before proceeding to the knockout stage.
The archery standard here has been on the rise since recent years, according to Wong.
He said: “Since the revival of SDAA and coupled with the format ion of SAC, we have been working very hard to help popularise the sport among students by coming up with more competitions,” he said.
For the first time, Wong said two students Jacky Sung and Aaron Loh were picked to represent Sibu in the Malaysia Schools Archery Championship held in Terengganu earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Gloria said MSNS would continue to assist and support SDAA to introduce the sport to students.
She described the event as a good platform to gauge the standard of the archers.
“Ho pe f u l l y, through competit ions, archery wi l l become more popular in Sibu,” she added.