By Arfandi Jaafar
Sabah SUKMA archers to be picked from Ranking Shoot tourney
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Archery Association will use their Ranking Shoot tournament next week as the selection platform for their SUKMA squad.
SAA secretary Paul Leong said the tournament, which is their second one this year after the first ranking event last month, is happening at the Likas archery range here on February 10-11.
“We expect to see archers from all over Sabah at this second ranking tournament and the competition for selection into the SUKMA (Malaysia Games) squad we believe will be very competitive.
“We have plenty of good archers but we want only the best of the best for the SUKMA squad,” he said when contacted here yesterday.
SUKMA this year will be hosted by Perak and is slated in September. And Sabah wants to live up to its billing as the country's top producer of young archers after impressive showings at the previous edition in Kuching, Sarawak.
According to Leong, SAA will also be sending archers to Karnival Bakat Siri 1 in Negeri Sembilan on March 811, while the Archery League and Selangor Open on March 7-11 will be the main upcoming tournament for SUKMA-bound archers to showcase their talents.
“The Selangor Open will be the platform for our SUKMA archers to gauge their abilities and we hope their participation in this high-level tournament will help enhance their performance,” said Leong who is also team manager of the SUKMA squad.
Before, this he had also stated hopes that Sabah archers would be given a chance to train and compete overseas to boost their confidence and level of exposure and experience.
He said international exposure in Indonesia and Australia was among the main factors to the association's success. He said it became a source pool of gold medals after achieving their target (six gold medals) at the 18th SUKMA in Sarawak in 2016.
According to Leong, SUKMA campaigners from 2016 are still eligible to compete this year including Muhd Sauqi Azmi, Ahmad Afiq Akio Man, Diana Tsen, Adriel Gabriel Liew, Eugenius Lo Foh Soon and Mecedger Sage Edie.
However, their selection into the squad will depend entirely on their current performance as there will be no automatic qualification, said Leong.