NATIONAL shooter Johnathan Wong was all smiles despite finishing sixth in the men’s 10m air pistol final.
The 31-year-old shot 580 points in the qualification round to finish third and win the right to qualify for the top-eight final at the Fuyang Yinhu Sports Centre.
In the final, he shot a poor 157 points.
It was still better than his previous outing in Indonesia when he finished 24th and none in the team made it to the final.
Johnathan is the first Malaysian in Hangzhou to reach the final after all his teammates fell by the wayside one by one but he wished he could have done better.
“I had hoped to win a medal but reaching the final is a good achievement too,” said Johnathan.
“I knew it would be tough but I did well to make the top eight.”
“I did above expectations in the qualifying, which was fantastic. I was consistent until the last shot. This is my best showing in 2023.
“It’s great to feature in my first final in my third Asian Games stint. It will motivate to me to do better in future tournaments.
Vietnam’s Pham Quang Huy took the gold with 240.5 points while South Korea’s Lee Won-ho (239.4) and Uzbekistan’s Vladimir Svechnikov (219.9) came in second and third respectively.
Johnathan hopes to bring his form to the Asian Championships in October, which serves as the Paris Olympic Games qualifier.
“The fact that I was able to achieve 580 in qualification has given me lots of confidence to qualify for the Olympics after missing the Tokyo edition.”
Johnathan will next compete in the 10m air pistol mixed team event with Nurul Syasya Nadiah Ariffin tomorrow.
Syasya will be competing in today’s women’s 10m air pistol and is also a prospect to qualify for the final while Haritz Ikhlil Hessly Hafiz will hope to make a mark in the men’s 50m rifle three positions.
