KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian shooting squad is not going to participate in all 14 events contested in the Philippines SEA Games, but will only take part in the Olympics and International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) events.
The National Shooting Association of Malaysia (NSAM) honorary secretary, Adam Tee said the men’s and women’s 10m air pistol, 10m air rifle as well as men’s skeet and trap are among the events Malaysia will compete in.
Adam said the National Sports Council (NSC) has also agreed to include 20 shooters in the new Tiering system to get them prepared for the SEA Games beginning November this year.
“Eight of them will be full time while 12 are part time. This should be more than enough, because we have limited events at SEA Games…Some events we cannot take part in because they are funny events, or non-Olympics or ISSF events.
“I think for the silhouette and benchrest events, we do not even have guns and shooters, so we are not prepared for it. So far NSC have designated their tiers and the highest ranked will be Alia Sazana Azahari, who won the women’s 25m pistol bronze medal at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games,” he told reporters after the working committee meeting at NSC, yesterday.
For the SEA Games, the host has shortlisted men’s and women’s precision pistol, 10m air pistol and 10m air rifle; men’s individual and team skeet, men’s individual and team trap; mixed benchrest air rifle, benchrest rimfire, silhouette air rifle and silhouette air pistol events.
A total of 15 events – men’s and women’s 10m air pistol, 25m rapid fire pistol, 10m air rifle, 50m rifle three positions, skeet and trap as well as mixed team air pistol, air rifle and trap team events will be contested at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Meanwhile, Adam said NSAM will propose a suitable candidate to replace the vacant post left by South Korean coach Lee Do Hee to train the pistol shooters, including Olympian Johnathan Wong Guanjie.
“Currently our head coach Park Sang Soon is looking after both pistol and rifle department after our pistol coach Lee left. We do not have any candidates yet, but may need to look for a foreign coach from Korea or China due to the limited budget to hire European coaches.
“Our local coaches are not able to lead our shooters to win medals at higher levels because they are not good enough. Our shooters have moved beyond the SEA Games, like Johnathan had featured in Olympics, so local coaches cannot help in that sense,” he said.
Adam said NSAM is also hopeful that the police will give the green light to re-open the Selangor Shooting Association clubhouse in Subang, to enable the shooters to commence their practice at the range.
The club was closed due to lack of security procedures in terms of firearms under its care following the suicide of a 19-year-old student at the toilet of a nearby college using a pistol he had allegedly taken from the club where he had been a member, last year.
“We have done what is necessary to get the approval security wise. Police from different departments had inspected. They are happy and we might get their approval anytime,” he said. – Bernama
