Haziq and Khairul not assured of London spots

Friday July 8, 2011


By LIM TEIK HUAT


PETALING JAYA: Archers Haziq Kamaruddin and Khairul Anuar Mohd may have helped Malaysia clinch the maximum quota of three spots in the men’s recurve event for the Olympics next year but they are still not assured of making the trip to London.

The two new recruits to the elite squad, who are not in the Road to Lon­don programme, partnered the ever-dependable Cheng Chu Sian and lost a first round shoot-off against third seeds France in the elimination rounds. Still, they came out smiling at the end of the day.

With Olympic hosts Britain advancing to the last eight, an extra spot for the team competition was available – leading to a tussle among the first-round losers.

It was Chu Sian, Haziq and Khairul who claimed the prized ticket for Malaysia to join the likes of South Korea, the United States, France, Ukraine, Italy, China, Britain and Mexi­co as the first nine countries to qualify the whole team for the Olympics.

Three more teams will qualify at the world qualifying tournament in Ogden, US, next June.

But national coach Lee Jae-hyung is glad that they have accomplished their mission early.

“It is the country that qualifies for the Olympics and it is not necessary that these three will be shooting next year,” said Jae-hyung, who was also in charge when the Malay­sian men made history with their first appearance at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

“The line-up for the Olympics will be based on current form and performance in training and competitions. We also have others to choose from ... it is still a year before the Olympics,” added the South Korean.

“But I’m happy we qualified the whole team this time from the world meet. This will allow us to work on finding the best archers to make up the Olympic team.”

The early qualification for the Lon­don Olympics has also boosted the archers’ confidence following disappointing outings at the New Delhi Common­wealth Games and Guang­zhou Asian Games last year.

The team won only one silver medal at the Commonwealth Games and finished empty-handed at the Asiad – leading to the sport being nearly dropped from the Road to London programme.

But it’s all behind them now as Chu Sian, Haziq and Khairul begin the individual competition from today.