Thursday January 19, 2012
Joy and agony for Suryani in Asian shooting meet
By LIM TEIK HUAT
PETALING JAYA: Shooter Nur Suryani Mohd Taibi experienced joy and agony after ending her campaign in the Asian Shooting Champion-ships in Doha.
The 29-year-old double gold medallist at the Indonesia SEA Games missed out on qualifying for a second Olympic event in London in the women’s 50m rifle three-position discipline.
She put herself in a position to make history as the first Malaysian shooter to ever qualify for the Olympics after reaching the top eight final.
However, Suryani could not repeat her steady performance in the final, shooting 93.9 to be placed last among the finalists with a total of 674.9 points.
Suryani chalked the sixth highest score of 581 points in the six-round preliminaries earlier and her efforts at least helped Malaysia to bag their first medal in the Asian meet.
Muslifah Zulkifli and Nur Ayuni Farhana Halim finished 10th (578pts) and 13th (576pts) respectively and the trio’s combined total of 1735 gave them the bronze medal behind China (1766) and South Korea (1746).
It also bettered the previous national record set two years ago by six shots.
Two-time China Olympic gold medallist Du Li won the event with 692.1 points ahead of team-mate Li Peijing (688.3).
China had already secured the maximum quota of two shooters through the World Cup series last year, thereby handing South Koreans Jeong Mi-ra and Jeong Gyungsuk, who were third and fifth respectively, the two quota spots.
Olga Dovgun of Kazakhstan, who finished sixth, grabbed the last of the three quota spots in the discipline awarded at the Asian meet.
Suryani will be the only Malaysian representative in shooting with her achievement in making the cut from the women’s 10m air rifle last Saturday and she was not too disappointed.
“I tried my best to qualify for a second event but I guess my luck ran out. I’m still happy as we got a medal in the team event and this is also my best overall performance. I have achieved my dream to compete at the Olympics for the first time,” said Suryani, who finished fifth in the 50m rifle prone on Monday.
Hasli Izwan Amir Hasan’s hopes of qualifying for the Olympics for the second time in the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol ended after he failed to reach the top six final.
Hasli, who qualified on merit for the Beijing Olympics four years ago, finished 10th with 574 while two other Malaysians – Hafiz Adzha and Khalel Abdullah – ended 13th (569) and 16th (566) respectively.
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