Miri club archers win medals in Melaka, Thailand
MIRI: Archers from X-Tune Archery Club here exceeded expectations when they took part in two recent tournaments outside Sarawak.
The trio of Syari fan Jafar, Esther Yong Yin Ze and Jee Kuok Liang returned with a sizeable collection of medals from the National Circuit 1st Series held at Kolej Vokasional Melaka from June 22-25.
Syarifan won two gold medals in the men’s 9 0m and 70m individual qualification round compound bow. In the 90m event he also broke the meet record. He followed up with another two bronzes in the 30m event and the individual matching round compound bow.
Esther Yong Yin Ze bagged three bronze medals in the women’s 30m and 70m individual qualification round compound and individual matching compound bow. She was also a member of the gold medal winning team in the compound bow.
Jee Kuok Liang collected a silver in the men’s individual matching round recurve bow and a bronze in the 90m individual qualification round recurve bow.
Over 140 archers from 10 states took part in the Melaka tournament which served as a warm-up trial for the upcoming Sukma in September.
Meanwhi le, another three archers represented the club at the 12th Princess Cup held in Bangkok, Thailand from June 23-24.
Joey Tan Xing Lei, Liew Yu Jie and Liew Yu Wei were among 15 archers from Miri at the international tournament which attracted over 360 archers from countries such as India, Hong Kong, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.
Joey picked up the gold medal in the girl’s U12 individual quali fication round recurve bow. Yu Jie won a bronze and a silver in the boy’s U12 individual qualification round recurve bow and individual matching round recurve bow respectively.
Liew Yu Wei won two bronze medals in boy’s U18/ U12 individual qualification round recurve bow and individual recurve bow (open) respectively.
Coach Ricky Yee expressed the hope that the achievements augur well for local talents.
“Of course, this is a first of the many steps to come, and that we are looking at efforts to promote archery and discover as well as nurture potential archers from Miri division for both domestic and international championships,” he said.