Shoot for the sky
Johnathan aiming to prove doubters wrong by making final
SHOOTER Johnathan Wong Guanjie will be the first Malaysian athlete in action Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro next month.
And he plans to set the tone for the Malaysian camp by doing what he term as “mission not impossible” – that is to qualify for the final of the 10m air pistol event.
Many may feel that it’s a tall order for the 24-year-old, and they could be right. After all, no national shooter has ever made it to the final in the Olympics.
But Johnathan’s ready to prove the naysayers wrong.
“My mission in Rio is to (be the first Malaysian) qualify for the final. But many people think I don’t stand a chance based on my performances in local and overseas competitions. But I will prove them wrong in Rio.
“If I can become the first Malaysian shooter to reach the final, it will surely boost the other Malaysian athletes to give their best in Rio,” said Johnathan, who is also down to compete in the 50m pistol event schedule on Aug 10.
It’s difficult to really gauge his chances in Rio as his performance has been on the wane since he hit a high at the Asian Olympic Qualifying Championships in New Delhi in January.
Then, he stunned everyone by clinching the gold in the 10m air pistol event and sealing his ticket to the Rio Games.
Since then, it’s been downhill for this shooter from Malacca.
He failed to come close to his personal best of 585 points in the qualifying events of the four World Cups he featured in.
He could only collect 575 points in Bangkok (March) and Rio de Janeiro (April), 578 points in Munich (May), and 565 points in Baku, Azerbaijan (June).
But credit to Johnathan for realising his weaknesses and doing something to rectify it.
Knowing that he needed to be mentally resilient, he got down to work with two world renowned coaches.
Johnathan, who took a semester break from Universiti Putra Malaysia ( UPM) in February to prepare for the Olympics, first trained under German coach Philip Bernard for a week in Hannover last month.
On July 1, he left for Seoul, to train with South Korean coach Park Sang-soon for two weeks.
While he was there, he also trained with two South Korean pistol shooters and 2014 Asian Games gold and bronze medallists Kin Cheong-yong and Jin Jong-oh.
Johnathan, who is pursuing an aeronautical engineering degree at UPM, is glad that he went to Seoul, “although the training was tough – mentally and physically – as I trained eight hours a day for two weeks”.
Johnathan left for Rio de Janeiro yesterday and will arrive there on Monday to get familiarised with the shooting venue and also the environment.
He will miss the opening ceremony on Aug 5 as he will compete in the 10m air pistol event the following day.
“I’m sad to miss the Olympics opening ceremony but there’s nothing I can do about it ... I need to stay focused for my event,” he said.