Asiad boost as Malaysians bag bronze medal in World Cup
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian men’s recurve team earned a timely boost ahead of the Indonesia Asian Games by winning the bronze medal in the third leg of Archery World Cup in Salt Lake City, United States.
Khairul Anuar Mohamad, Muhd Akmal Nor Hasrin and Haziq Kamaruddin matched their 2017 effort by overcoming the 2012 Olympic champions Italy on Sunday.
They narrowly pipped Italian trio Michele Frangilli, Mauro Nespoli and Marco Morello to third place with a 5-4 win.
Malaysia showed nerves of steel as they prevailed 25-23 in the three-arrow shoot-off after the match was tied at 4-4 (55-52, 54-55, 53-51, 53-55).
Holland took the gold after they outclassed China 5-1 in the final.
It was Malaysia’s seventh World Cup medal in the event, having pre- viously finished second four times – in Boe, France, 2008; Antalya 2008; Shanghai 2011; and Medellin 2013 – and third twice – Antalya 2009 and Salt Lake City 2017.
Haziq believes the team’s preparation for the Asian Games is on the right track.
“We’re peaking nicely for the Asian Games,” said Haziq after claiming his fifth World Cup medal.
“We wanted the bronze medal badly after losing to Britain in the earlier leg in Antalya (Turkey) last month, so we fought until the very last arrow for it.
Haziq said there was still plenty of room for improvement before they head to Jakarta in a bid to go one better than their silver medal finish in Incheon, South Korea four years ago.
“Our Asian Games rivals such as Japan and Kazakhstan are improving too, so we must keep up with them,” said Haziq.
“But at least we know where we stand after this event. We aim to carry this momentum into the final leg in Berlin (July 16-22) and finetune our preparation.”
“Hopefully, we will be at our very best during the Asian Games.”