Shooting straight for the stars

SIBU: It was an idea borne out of their undying love for a sport.

An idea that drove their passion to promote and develop archery in the state.

It led the trio of Simon Wong Ing Hoo, Ma Bee Chung and Bustamin Luhi to a brainstorming session which translated an idea into reality and passion into a plan of action.

That was four years ago and from there, the arrows began to fly.

A year later, SAT Archery Club was born. SAT is their acronym for Sportsmanship, Agility and Team.

In late 2015, SAT Archery Club became the first registered archery club in the central region of Sarawak. It was officially approved by the Sports Commissioner on Jan 5, 2016.

“Our vision is to assist and promote the development of archery as a sport competitively as a fitness and recreation activity that benefit areas from muscle development to mental health and which requires precision, control, focus, physical ability and determination to improve and excel,” SAT club secretary Wong said.

SAT set out to groom archers with ‘sportsmanship’ and ‘agility’, and to practise, compete and excel through ‘team’ work.

Wong added, “There are very few sports in the world that allow the world best to compete on the target with someone fairly new and archery is one sport that allow this to happen.”

“Tournaments in archery are often without barriers and enable friendships between individuals from all walks of life. You never know you will end up a target with the next,” he added.

He also described archery as a great stress reliever.

“One can (also) make a fashion out of it,’ he quipped, highlighting Miss KL Bo Bae who wears fabulous hats and other colorful uniform with unique arrow items clipped on it.

Besides SAT Archery Club, Sibu also has Sibu Division Archery Association (SDAA) and Sibu Archery Centre (SAC) all aimed at promoting archery.

It was red tape and ‘unnecessary protocol’ involved in organizing archery competitions that compelled the three enthusiasts to establish their club.

“When it comes to promoting archery sport, undoubtedly, all those red tapes should be put aside for better and efficient results. Unfortunately SDAA and SAC are indifferent to our efforts and since our sincerity are being questioned with suspicion, we might as well quit from SDAA and go our own ways,” Wong explained.

After its formation, SAT immediately swept into action by organising the Inter-Division Archery Competition with Sarawak Tiong’s Clan Association in 2017.

It also sent archers to participate in many tournaments such as the annual Sarawak Open Outdoor and Indoor Championship, Assyakirin Traditional Modern Archery (ATMA) Series, Mukah Open (multiple series), Kuching Indoor Archery Academy (KIAA) Invitational, Sarikei Fun Archery and the recent 1st Asia Pacific Masters Games held in Penang.

SAT archers represented Sarawak in the inaugural Asia Pacific Masters Games and returned with three gold, three silver and three bronze medals. They competed against archers from 11 other countries. Syahrizan Jafar (Men’s 30-40 age category), Hii Bee Chung (Men’s 40-50) and Bong Jiew Khiun (Men’s 60 & above) were the gold medalists.

“It was a superb outing and we are all so elated with the unexpected results,” Wong reported.

“We are so happy that we are representing Malaysia to take part in the championship and it was indeed a big honor to all of us.”

A year earlier, four SAT members – Hii (550+ points), Lawrence Ling (525+), Bustamin (500+) and Wong (500+) – were awarded the World Archery (WA) Achievement Badge based on their achievement at a WA-sanctioned State Open tournament held in Kuching.

“It was the very first time that such an award was ever awarded to archers in the Sarawak Archery Open Tournaments,” Wong said, adding the award instilled in them the confidence to move further ahead.

SAT Archery Club realised very early that having its own shooting range was of upmost importance if they were serious about promoting archery.

Wong admitted it was quite a challenge to set up an archery range as they needed to find a suitable piece of land.

Who else but their president Bustamin stepped forward to offer a piece of land beside his home at Kampong Jeriah Barat to be converted into the club’s shooting range.

Land clearing was completed in 2014 and shooting facilities were installed as club members did their part to ensure that the range was properly taken care of.

Measuring 20 to 30 feet long with a width of five to 10 feet, it allowed members to conduct their daily shooting practices from the 18m, 30m, 50m, 70m and 90m target.

“As club members, they can enjoy friendship, sharing of knowledge and expenses in traveling to outstation competition venues but one can still choose it to be an individual sport,” Wong revealed.

The range has since been picked as a venue for Programme Pelapis Bakat USPTN (Unit Sukan Pretasi Tinggi Negri) by the Sarawak Sports Council.

All the coaching duties are managed by Hii – their internationally certified coach – assisted by two other senior coaches.

Members actively practise and participate in competitions in various parts of Sarawak like Kuching, Mukah, Bintulu, Miri, Sarawak and Sarikei.

“With enough budget, we will like to participate and be exposed in many more competitions, locally and in higher categories,” Wong said.

“We provide a stable platform and positive environment for members to train and enhance their skills to higher level to achieve their dreams or goals.”

SAT also regularly interacts with other archery clubs and communities throughout Sarawak to exchange ideas, share knowledge and updates, support competitions and other archery related activities.

While the club remains committed to train more archers it is aware that other clubs could be established in the coming years.

Wong said SAT actually looks forward to welcoming more clubs.

“The more, the merrier as the more clubs we have, we will have more players who can participate in the archery competitions. This will upgrade the standard of the game,” he said.

SAT currently has 21 members. The main exco comprised Bustamin as president, Wong as deputy president, Hii as secretary and Roslina Abdullah as treasurer.

They all remain as enthusiastic as ever.

Bustamin described archery as “a fun game” while Hii said ‘archery helps me to focus on things that I am doing.’

Added Wong, “Indeed, archery is in me and part of me.”

They are fully committed to further promote the sport.

That includes breaking down myths such as those concerning the sport’s safety record.

Statistically, Wong said, archery is safer than all ball sports except table tennis. Although accidents do happen, he hasten to point out, insurance statistics show that archery is one of the safest sports or activities out there.

“We emphasise safety as our first priority and archers are trained likewise to be always aware of safety to oneself and to others,” he assured.