Over 160 archers vying for honours
KOTA KINABALU: More than 160 archers from all over the state will be vying for honours at the Sabah Archery Circuit Championships Series II, which begins here today.
The four-day championship is organised by Sabah Archery Association and hosted by the Malaysia Sports School Sabah in Sepanggar.
SAA president Dzulkarnain Dzulkifli said the record number of entries augured well for the development of archery in Sabah with the bulk of the numbers going to the Under-13 category.
“We also have a full list of other categories including the Senior Open, Under-15 as well as the Under-10 which we introduced earlier in the Series I tournament.
“We have also included Novice events to encourage newcomers to get a feel of the competitive environment. This category will see participants compete in the 30m events,” he said.
According to Dzulkarnain, the Series II championship received a much higher number of entries as it is the final stop for archers to prove themselves for district representation.
The Series I tournament, which was hosted by Tawau in September, also received encouraging response attracting 120 entries.
“As we know, SAGA (Sabah Games) is just around the corner. For districts taking part in archery events in Keningau next month, this will be the final stage to confirm those who have been shortlisted for representation,” he said.
Aside from local entries, Dzulkarnain said there were also a handful of archers from outside Sabah including a team from Brunei and one from Singapore.
“Perhaps it is due to the school holidays now that more young archers are able to join. On the other hand, entries in the open and Under-15 categories are fewer this time around, likely due to examinations for Form 5 and university students.
“We would like to think also that more people decided to join the Series II because we chose the best candidate to host it. The facilities at the Sekolah Sukan Malaysia Sabah are a class above the rest and we are very happy that they agreed to be the host,” he said.
Meanwhile, Dzulkarnain stressed that the championship would also be a platform to gauge the performance of top young talents in the state.
“Our list of candidates for SUKMA (Malaysia Games) is still not finalised yet as we want only the best archers to represent Sabah.
“Those who have been shortlisted for state representation must perform well in this championship in order to keep their place in the squad,” he said.