NEW CLARK CITY: National archers won one gold and one silver on the final day of the 30th SEA Games archery competition today, but it was too little too late.
Mohd Juwaidi Mazuki, Zulfadhli Ruslan and M. Khambeswaran salvaged some pride for Malaysia when they clinched the men’s team compound title by defeating Vietnam’s Nguyen Van Day, Nguyen Tien Cuong and Thach Phi Hung 224-216 at the Clark Parade Grounds, near here.
The win gave Malaysia a hat trick of golds in the event as they also won in 2015 in Singapore and in 2017 in Kuala Lumpur .
With the two medals today, Malaysia wound up their campaign with one gold, two silvers and one bronze, way off the target of five golds set by the National Archery Association of Malaysia (NAAM).
In the last two games, Malaysia won five gold, three silver and two bronze medals on each occasion.
“We have won many times and pushed other countries, and the success made us comfortable. Maybe there are certain things which we overlooked, and this time we can see they (Vietnam) were the ones who pushed us,” Mohd Juwaidi told reporters after the event.
Mohd Juwaidi also partnered elite athlete Fatin Nurfatehah Mat Salleh in the mixed compound event but lost 150-152 to Indonesia’s Sri Ranti and Prima Wisnu Wardhana in the bronze medal playoff today.
Their poor run continued when Fatin lost in the women’s individual compound final while Zulfadhli was defeated in the men’s individual compound bronze medal playoff.
Fatin lost 141-146 to Thailand’s Kanoknapus Kaewchompu while Zulfadhli went down 143-145 to Indonesia’s Yoke Rizaldi Akbar.
Earlier in the competition, Malaysia had won one silver through Khairul Anuar Mohamad, Haziq Kamaruddin and Muhamad Zarif Syahiir Zolkepeli in the men’s recurve team and one bronze through Khairul Anuar and Nur Afisa Abdul Halil in the mixed recurve. — Bernama
