YECHEON (South Korea): The Malaysian traditional archery squad again demonstrated their prowess in winning a silver medal at the 2019 Yecheon Traditional Archery Festival on Saturday.
In the international event, Malaysia, represented by archer Mohd Aswat Kidam of Johor with partner Saiful Rezza Mat of Sarawak, took the lead since the beginning of the competition.
They then qualified for the semi-finals to meet Chinese couple Zhao Laiyun and Zhang Zhe before losing in the final.
The feat enabled the national couple to bring home 700,000 won.
According to Aswat, he and his partner have done their best in the competition, despite some challenges.
“Fate did not side with us and we lost to more experienced opponents.
For Saiful, his experience at Yecheon taught him a lot of composure during archery.
“I have acquired a lot of archery techniques here and this has been a great help in improving my skills,” he said.
Overall, the national performance at the Hencheon Sports Park was very satisfying when the first team took home one gold, one silver and one bronze.
Aswat won the individual event for the gold on Friday while Saiful won the bronze.
The event saw each participant competing in three disciplines — the 30m target, the 50 target and the 30m moving target. – By Rudi Affendi Khalik in Yecheon, South Korea