Champs: China’s Jiang Ranxin (right) and Zhang Bowen chatting after the awards ceremony. They took the gold in the final. — AP
MALAYSIAN shooters lacked the X-factor as they just missed out on the bronze medal playoff in the 10m air pistol mixed team event at the Fuyang Yinhu Sports Centre.
Johnathan Wong and Nurul Syasya Nadiah Ariffin finished seventh in the qualification with a score of 573, identical to the sixth-placed Pakistan duo Gulfam Joseph and Kismala Talat.
But the Pakistanis got to the next stage as they had more bullseyes than Malaysia.
“We could have gone for the bronze medal playoffs if we had more Xs than Pakistan. For the pistol team, I am satisfied with John’s outing. It is an indication that our programme is going according to plan,” said coach Firdaus Abdul Rahim, who also found himself in the middle of a row.
He was told to tone down his coaching from the stands by one of the jury members.
Johnathan and Syasya then had to fend for themselves from the second series onwards.
“I did not know what happened, all of a sudden, the coach wasn’t guiding us especially in the second series,” said Johnathan.
“I was struggling, trying to find the things that I could adjust, like my technique, posture and the way I was holding the pistol.
“I was looking for answers and turned to the coach for input but he said he could not communicate. That is when I had to figure things out on my own.”
Firdaus said an Iranian jury member had made life tough for him.
“He said I was breaching Asiad rules. I was just going to guide my shooter before the second series,” said Firdaus.
“My manager told me not to argue or I would be issued a red card. We were close to the top six.
“Our next plan is to seek an Olympics spot. It depends on the National Sports Council (NSC) to assess shooting then and now.
“The next Olympic qualification is the Asian Championships in Changwon this month. My athletes are ready for it.”
Syasya, who is just 21, said the Asian Games outing was a valuable one.
“It was a jolt seeing the quality of those from China and India but I will learn from them,” she said.
“Even in the mixed team, I was happy with the score I got because I felt I did better in the team than the individual event. I will get stronger after this.”
China’s Zhang Bowen and Jiang Ranxin took the gold by beating the Indian pair of Sarabjot Singh and Dhivya Thadigol 16-14 in the final.
