Sarawak archers end Sukma XXI campaign with second gold medal

KUCHING (Aug 23): Sarawak archers ended their campaign in the Malaysia Games (Sukma XXI) today with their second gold medal on the final day of competition at the Sarawak Archery Range.

Isaac Ting Ann Zhe, Liew Yu Jie and Melvin Tieh Xuan Ruey delivered the gold in the recurve men’s team after they outdid in Pahang’s A’zat Faris Fathullah Azrul, Muhammad Amirul Haziq Mohd Rashiddin and Muhammad Haiqal Danish Syamsul Affandi 5-1 in the final.

Sarawak enjoyed a first round bye before overcoming Melaka 6-0 in the quarterfinal and Johor with the same margin in the semi-final.

It was Liew’s second medal in this Sukma after he won the bronze in the men’s 70m recurve individual ranking.

With today’s victory, Sarawak collected two golds and two bronzes, which is one gold short of their gold medal target.

Their target was three golds, one silver and two bronzes.

The other gold medal was contributed by Joel Tan Xing Lei in the 70m women’s individual ranking and Aira Nadirah Aizuddin in the women’s 50m compound individual ranking.

Despite not being able to meet their target, there was some shine in Sarawak camp as Joey and Liew broke the meet records of 325 points and 334 points in the recurve women’s and men’s individual rankings.

State head coach Jaffery Low expressed satisfaction over the team’s performance and said the archers had done their very best to shine for Sarawak.

“We had a few near misses but overall they did alright and the men’s recurve team was able to raise to their standard.

“There was not as much improvement in other categories but this is sport,” he said.