KUALA LUMPUR: The national men’s archery recurve team is expected to join two rounds of the Archery World Cup next year in the hunt for a team event slot in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics scheduled to be held in July 2021.
The two rounds of the championship are the second round in Shanghai, China from May 17 to 23 and the third round in Paris, France from June 22 to 27.
National archery head coach, Lee Jae Hyung said the national archery recurve squad would be participating in the Asian Cup in Bangkok, Thailand in March 2021 as a warm-up before going for the World Cup competition.
“We still have a chance for the recurve team to earn a berth to Tokyo Olympics at the two World Cup rounds,” he told Bernama recently.
Lee hoped the three national archers would use the opportunity at the three tournaments to join national Olympian, Khairul Anuar Mohamad to Tokyo.
The three archers are Haziq Kamaruddin, Mohd Akmal Nor Hasrin and Muhamad Zarif Syahiir Zolkepeli.
Khairul Anuar had confirmed his ticket to Tokyo earlier after clinching the individual recurve silver medal at the World Archery Championships in Hertogenbosch, Holland last year.
“Now, all athletes are still undergoing training as usual at the Archery Range in Bukit Jalil in the past few months.
“I will be evaluating their performance in the competitions next year, to ensure only the best would qualify for the Olympics if we are in the team event,” said Lee who is fluent in Bahasa Melayu.
The combination of Khairul Anuar, Haziq as well as Mohd Akmal qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympics but failed to garner positive results in the individual and team recurve events after being eliminated in the preliminary rounds.
Prior to going for any international competition next year, the national squad is expected to take part in the National Archery Championship scheduled at the end of this year. – Bernama
