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Wednesday July 8, 2009

Archery: Chu Sian on target with new record

KUALA LUMPUR: Archer Cheng Chu Sian gave Malaysia a strong start when he set a new national mark in the qualifying rounds of the men’s recurve competition in the third leg of the Asian Grand Prix at the National Sports Complex in Taman Keramat here yesterday.

Chu Sian topped the board in the 90m event in the morning with 322 points to erase Marbawi Sulaiman’s previous record of 321 set at the 2007 world championships in Leipzig, Germany.

However, the Penangite failed to produce a repeat finish in the 70m event in the afternoon as his score of 329 was only good for fourth place behind a trio of South Koreans.

Sharp shooter: Cheng Chu Sian set a new national mark in the 90m recurve event.

Chu Sian thus dropped to second in the overall standings on 651, one point behind leader Jang Yong-ho of South Korea.

Despite this, Chu Sian was glad that his efforts in the morning prevented a Korean sweep of the long distance recurve events.

“Although I had shot that score regularly in training, I was not expecting to set a record as early as the first event. I’m not too happy with my score in the 70m event but I will try to give my best in the remaining events,” said Chu Sian, who is now ranked 11th in the world.

Medals are awarded in qualifying competitions. Besides Chu Sian, there were also victories for compound archers Lang Hon Keong and Nurhidayah Latip as Malaysia bagged three gold medals to match the haul of the Koreans.

Koreans were winners in both women’s recurve events with Jin Mi-yeong, Lee Da-bin and Han In-sook tied on 664 points for the overall lead. Malaysia’s S. Anbarasi was a distant fourth on 649.

Hon Keong and Nurhidayah led a Malaysian sweep of the podium in the morning in the men’s 90m and women’s 70m compound events respectively.

Hon Keong, the 2001 SEA Games champion, also finished with a silver in the 70m to lead the overall standings on 674 with team-mate Frankie Ting second on 662.

Nurhidayah is the women’s leader on 661, five points ahead of team-mate Fatin Norfatehah Mat Salleh and Singapore’s Ho Yi Ling.

The qualification rounds conclude with the short distance events (30m and 50m) today to determine the seedings for the individual and team competitions.

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