KUCHING: Sarawak can be a force like Pahang, Selangor, Perak or Johor in shooting if the state shooters under the Sarawak State Sports Council (MSNS) programme maintain their discipline in training. With training which includes technical, psychology and theory besides physical, the Sarawak shooters can go far by winning more than the two golds and four bronze which they won in the last Sukma in Perak, said new Sarawak shooting coach Leong Wai Si (pic).
“In two years it is possible to uplift their standard to be comparable with other strong states but they must be strong, not only in the physical but mental also. “From what I saw in the Sarawak athletes, they have the talents so they must maintain the systematic training as they have the advantage of good training facilities at the shooting range here,” said Leong who arrived and started work on Dec 1. A former national shooter herself and had won gold in the Asian Shooting championship in her last outing before she took up the post, here, said she picked Sarawak even though she had offers from other countries as the state is within the country. She had stopped competing internationally in 2004. “Even though I start from zero, the trainees who are still raw have learnt their basics but not yet the fundamentals.
“They also need to have the physical as well as psychological and techniques of shooting,” said Leong who is assisted by two assistant coaches, Vincent Goh in pistol and Ahmad in rifle. She said her home state of Perak is quite strong in shooting as they had produced shooters like Nur Suryani who had gone to the Olympics as well as top national shooters Hazli Izwan and Hafiz Azahar.
MSNS sports co-ordinator for shooting, Christina Janggui said they will look for a bigger pool of recruits when they start a talent hunt in January from schools like Tunku Putra and Lodge School and other schools from Samarahan area. So far, there are 40 shooters training every day, except the weekends, in a current development training programme who were recruited from 22 schools throughout Kuching, such as SMK Matang Jaya, SMK Demak Laut and SMK Tunku Abdul Rahman.
