Bintulu’s victorious Women’s Recurve team.
SIBU: Archers from Thailand stamped their superiority to lift both the Men’s Compound and Recurve titles in the Sarawak Indoor Archery Championship held at SM Catholic High School yesterday.
In the compound category, the Thais beat Kuching Division Archery Association (KDAA) by five points (222-217) to surpass the meet record of 220 points established by Sabah last year.
Enroute to the final, the Thai sharpshooters, comprising Thongrob Prochin, Phekadet Pratun Suwan and Denchai Thepra, had already smashed the meet record after hauling 228 points to sweep aside Kuching HDC Archery Club who chalked up 197 points.
In the recurve category, Itsarin Thai-Uea, Nathapuon Phusarat and Khornkrit Pnangsaran easily collected six points after three games to wrap up the match against the team from Bintulu Archery Association which failed to score a single point.
Thai coach Chong Yap Lee, who is also World Archery coach consultant, had encouraging words for the local competition.
“Nothing is easy and I must say the standard of the local archers are improving. With the players down to play for the Individual categories today, let’s hope all the archers will be able to rise during the occasion,” he said.
Meanwhile, Bintulu Archery Association beat Jess Archer from Selangor 6-0 to win the women’s recurve title. The team comprised archers from SMK Bandar Bintulu Chan Mei Hui, Kathy Kueh, both 15, and Kho Yee Ting, 16.
Archers from Kuching Frontier Archery Club swept the novice individual titles for both men and women.
Alvin Sim won after collecting 231 points in the first game and 225 points in the second for a combined total of 456 points.
He put down the challenge from teammates Ngu Hung Yaw (427 points) and Vince Chong (375).
Celina Lo led the female competitors to win after amassing 392 points ahead of Norainina Adam (271) and Nabilah Adam (239), both from Kuching Indoor Archery Academy.
The Thai Men’s Recurve trio (from left) Khornkrit, Nathapuon and Itsarin.