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Saturday October 10, 2009

National archer and Olympian Marbawi on the way out?

By RAJES PAUL

KUALA LUMPUR: This must be the beginning of the end for national archer and Olympian Mohd Marbawi Sulaiman.

Yesterday, the chubby Marbawi was not one of the three men confirmed in the squad for the Laos SEA Games in December.

This is the first time that Marbawi will not feature in the SEA Games, having competed in every series since 2001.

In fact, he was the first Malaysian to win a SEA Games gold medal at the Kuala Lumpur Games in 2001.

Out: Olympian Mohd Marbawi Sulaiman has been left out of the Laos SEA Games squad

His last international outing was the second-leg of the Archery World Cup in Porec, Croatia, last May, where he failed to clear the qualification round.

Being left out of the SEA Games squad may well see Marbawi’s gradual exit from the national team that he has served for the last nine years.

The three men assured of tickets to Laos are Cheng Chu Sian, Mohd Zulkifli Tahlil and Wan Khalmizam Wan Abdul Aziz. The final spot in the men’s team will be a toss-up between Ariff Farhan Ibrahim Putra and Fazli Hisham Fauzi.

National coach Lee Jae-hyung of South Korea admitted that he had a tough time naming the best archers for the Games..

“Marbawi has been with the team for a long time but, of late, there has been a decline in his form,” said Jae-hyung at Bukit Jalil yesterday.

“I have no choice but to leave him out of the Games squad. We will review his position in the team at the end of the year.”

Jae-hyung said their goal was to maintain the men’s supremacy in the SEA region.

Malaysia have won the men’s individual and team events at the 2001 KL Games, 2003 Vietnam Games and 2007 Korat Games. They, however, played second fiddle to Indonesia in 2005 in Manila.

“We cannot take our status for granted. For now, I am looking at naming the fourth archer in the team. It will be either Ariff or Hisham. I will look at their progress in training,” said Jae-hyung.

Once the selection is completed, the four-member team will compete in the Asian Championships in Bali next month.

“This will be an ideal platform for the archers to see where they stand before the Laos SEA Games,” said the coach.

Meanwhile, the three women archers confirmed for the Games are S. Anbarasi, Noor Aziera Taip and Nur Amirah Mohd.

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