Musa confident shooters can meet two-gold target

national shooting team are still hopeful of meeting the twogold target at the Philippines Sea Games despite a setback to their preparation.

In September last year, the National Shooting Range in Subang was forced to shut down temporarily pending investigations into the death of a 19-year-old, who had shot himself with a pistol taken from the range.

That resulted in the national shooters having to train at various venues, including the National Sports Council’s (NSC) shooting range in Bukit Jalil, which is smaller and lacks proper equipment.

But team manager Datuk Musa Omar is now pleased to see all 16 shooters listed for the Games training together once again.

He was also happy to note that the shooters are all in high spirits following their good showing at the recent Tun Hanif Cup in Kuching, Sarawak.

“I’d be lying if I said the temporary closure of the Subang range did not affect our preparation,” Musa, who is also NSAM’s training and competitions committee member, said at a press conference yesterday.

“However, everyone has been training together since Tuesday. Now, it’s up to the coaches to decide who will train at the reopened Subang range and at the NSC.”

Musa, who felt that the team did reasonably well at the Tun Hanif Cup, is confident they will peak at the Nov 30-Dec 11 Sea Games.

“I am confident they can meet our two-gold target despite the reduced number of events,” he said.

At the previous edition in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia won four gold, five silver and three bronze.