PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian men’s recurve trio of Cheng Chu Sian, Wan Mohd Khalmizam Wan Aziz and Mohd Marbawi Sulaiman were given a lesson in archery by reigning Olympic champions South Korea in the team final of the final leg of the World Cup in Boe, France, on Saturday.
It was the first time the Malaysian trio clashed with the top Korean archers who will feature in the Beijing Olympics in August.
Big blow: S. Anbarasi missed qualifying for the Beijing Olympics by one arrow. Poor starts by the Malaysians in the first two ends saw them eventually settling for the silver with a 215-228 defeat by the consistent Korean trio of Im Dong-hyun, Park Kyung-mo and Lee Chang-hwan.
Russia beat Spain 219-241 to take the bronze.
Despite the defeat, the Malaysians can still be proud of their achievements in making the final twice in the four-leg series this year and can look forward to making their maiden appearance in the Olympics with lots of optimism.
They won the first-ever medal for Malaysia in the World Cup by taking silver behind India in the third leg in Turkey and the efforts put them in the top five of the world rankings.
Malaysia just scraped through to the elimination rounds of 16 teams when they finished 15th with a 1,906 total on Wednesday.
But the team rose to the occasion to beat higher ranked sides – second seeds Australia (216-211) and seventh seeds Britain (215-209) – to reach the semi-finals. They went on to beat Spain 215-211.
Meanwhile, none of the Malaysian women managed to qualify for the Olympics in the last championships for them to make the grade.
S. Anbarasi came closest when only a single arrow separated her from making it.
She reached the quarter-finals but her dream to compete in the Olympics ended with a 102-103 defeat by Abtin Najmeh of Iran.
Her only hope to see action in Beijing depends on the decision by one of the top five countries whether to accept the quota spots earned by their archers.
Anbarasi is the first reserve after beating Cuba’s Sarduy Maidenia 8-7 in the shoot-out for sixth spot.
The other two Malaysians – Irza Hanie Abu Samah and Nur Amirah Mohd – failed to clear their first round hurdles.
The Star
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