THE Penang Sukma archery team will be banking on two national archers – M. Khambeswaran and Loke Shin Hui – to hit the bullseye when the competition begins at the Universiti Teknologi Petronas in Tronoh, Perak, from Sept 13 to 21.
The state will be fielding 16 archers – eight men and eight women – to contest for the 24 gold medals up for grabs.
Chief coach G. Shamani is optimistic the team will better the performance of the 2016 Sukma in Sarawak where they garnered two gold, one silver and three bronze medals.
“So far, the archers have been making good progress. But our training programme in the last lap is being disrupted because some of them are involved with SPM examination and PT3 trials. In fact, their exams will end on Sept 11 and we’ll be leaving for Sukma the next day,” Shamani said.
Khambeswaran, who won gold for the 30m and 70m in the 2016 Sukma, is now able to join the Penang team’s training because of his semester break. He is now studying Pre-U (Matriculation) at Bukit Jalil.
In their build-up to Sukma (Malaysia Games), the Penang team scored some excellent results. They won two golds, four silvers, and seven bronzes at the Sibu Open in March and two golds, two silvers and three bronzes in the UUM Open in Sintok, Kedah in July.
In the Sibu Open, the two gold medals came from Naveer Fikri Zinuldin in the 90m recurve event and the compound women’s team comprising Nurin Sofiya Ahmad Shukor, M. Pritiswary and Kayalvhily.
In the UUM Open, Khambeswaran was on top form to bag the gold medal in the 30m compound men besides teaming up with Syed Imran Syed Ibrahim, Muhd Faris Jamaludin to victory in the compound men’s team event.
The Penang Sukma archery team members: Team manager – Tan Ai Lee, Coaches – Shamani Ganesan, Salina Putriana, Mohamad Syazwan, Kan Kar Inn; Recurve Men – Aqil Fauzan, Yeoh Wei Khang, Naveer Fikri, Muhammad Izzul Haqim; Recurve Women – Priyaswary, Wan Nur Affiza, Nur Balqis Fathi, Loke Shin Hui; Compound Men – V. Logathasan, Muhamad Faris Jamaludin, Syed Imran Syed Ibrahim, M. Khambeswaran; Compound Women – Kayalvhily, Pritiswary, Nurin Sofiya.
Story by K.H. Ong