Recurve team contribute silver and bronze from men's and women's individual events

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia added a silver and bronze medal from the men's and women's individual recurve events held at the Synthetic Turf Field at Bukit Jalil, here today.
Khairul Anuar Mohamad contributed the silver after losing 2-6 to Chu Duc Anh from Vietnam in the final while defending champion Witthaya Thamwong from Thailand settled for the bronze after beating Malaysia's Muhammad Akmal Nor Hasrin 6-2.
According to Khairul, when he was about to release his arrow during the third attempt of the second end, he noticed a foreign object at the end of the arrow but since time was running out, he had decided to release the arrow and that resulted in a low score of seven, thus reducing his overall score.
"When I saw the object, I had only nine seconds to react. I had no choice but to release the arrow. The same happened at the fourth end," he told reporters after the prize presentation ceremony, here today.
In the semifinals, Khairul had performed superbly by beating defending champion Witthaya from Thailand.
However, Khairul said he and his team mates would work hard to retain the team gold that they had won at the Singapore SEA Games in 2015.
In the women's individual recurve, Nur Aliya Ghapar beat Myanmar's Thida Nwe 6-0 to contribute a bronze while the gold was won by Indonesia's Diananda Choirunisa who beat Nicole Marie Tagle from the Philippines 6-4.
In the qualifying rounds, three National records and a games record were shattered by Khairul and the Recurve team.
Khairul smashed the 70m SEA Games record of 677 points but after firing 682 points plus the 678 points National record set by Cheng Chu Sian at the 2009 Laos SEA Games.
The team comprising Khairul, Haziq Kamaruddin and Muhammad Akmal shot 2,009 points in the 70m event to smash the previous National record of 1,968 points set by Khairul Anuar, Haziq Kamaruddin and Atiq Bazil Bakri during the 2013 SEA Games in Myanmar. — Bernama