Only Nur Afisa can take a bow on tough day for archers

PETALING JAYA: National recurve archer Nur Afisa Abdul Halil was the only bright spot on a difficult third day for Malaysia at the Archery World Cup leg in Shanghai.

Nur Afisa put up a creditable performance as she fought hard to enter the bronze medal playoff in the recurve event.

The 20-year-old got off to a flying start when she stunned Rio 2016 Olympic gold medallist Chang Hye-jin of South Korea 6-4 in the third round yesterday.

She clawed her way back from a 0-4 to defeat Hye-jin, who also helped South Korea win the Olympic team gold in Rio.

Buoyed by the win, Nur Afisa easily disposed off Iran’s Zahra Nemati in the fourth round.

In the quarter-finals, she pulled off another stunning win. She defeated seventh seed Meng Fanxu of China 6-5 after it went down to a one arrow shoot-out.

But her brilliant run came to an end in the semi-finals when she was outclassed 0-6 by third seed Kang Chae-young of South Korea.

Nur Afisa will now face fourth seeded Tan Ya-ting of Taiwan in the playoff on Sunday.

National coach Lee Jae-hyung believes that Nur Afisa still needs to remain focused.

“It was a good win against an Olympic champion, but in archery anything can happen. The lowest ranked can defeat the top ranked player. She just needs to keep focused and continue training.

“It was also her first time making it that far in such a big event, so we hope she can bring out her best on Sunday.

“Her performance has been on the rise and it is a good start as the world championships in Holland is next month (June 10-16),” added Jae-hyung.

In men’s recurve, sixth seed Khairul Anuar Mohamad was no match for third seed Sjef Van Den Berg of Holland going down 0-6 in the last eight.

In the compound quarter-finals, Syahrizan Jafar met his match in a 143-145 loss to eventual finalist Brend Frederickx of Belgium.