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Saturday November 21, 2009

Archers’ poor form in Bali gives coach Lee the blues

PETALING JAYA: The tone of disappointment in the voice of national archery coach Lee Jae-hyung said it all yesterday.

Both the SEA Games-bound recurve men’s and women’s teams were unceremoniously dumped in the first round of the Asian Archery Championships in Bali yesterday – causing a major concern of their chances in Laos next month.

The men’s trio of Cheng Chu Sian, Mohd Zulkifli Tahlil and Ariff Farhan Ibrahim went down to a shocking 205-209 defeat by Bangladesh.

It was also demoralising for the women’s team of S. Anbarasi, Noor Aziera Taip and Nur Amirah Mohd when they lost 194-195 to SEA Games rivals Singapore.

At the Korat SEA Games two years ago, the men’s team beat Indonesia to bag the gold medal while the women’s team finished second to Indonesia.

Jae-hyung, who was using the Asian meet as a warm-up ahead of the Laos Games, said everything went wrong for the team – especially for the men.

“We had some expectations on the men to go far but they crashed in the first round. There was some problem with the team,” Jae-hyung said in a telephone interview yesterday.

“Zulkifli was struggling throughout the match and that affected the score and also the morale of the team.

“We will have to get back and work on the team’s performances if they harbour hopes of defending the (SEA Games) gold,” he said.

He also hoped that the poor outing would serve as a wake-up call for the women.

At the last two SEA Games, the battle for women’s archery supre­ma­­cy had been between Malaysia and Indonesia.

“The defeat to Singapore shows that the other teams are catching up,” said Jae-hyung, who will return home with the team tomorrow.

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