THE Penang archery team to the 20th Sukma (Malaysia Games) will be spearheaded by two national archers M. Khambeswaran and P. Kayalvhily when it is held in Kuala Lumpur from Sept 16 to 24.
Both archers, who are now studying at Universiti Sains Malaysia, will be representing Malaysia at the 20th Asean University Games in Ubon Ratchathani in Thailand from July 26 to Aug 6.
Khambeswaran, a second-year Social Science student, won the men’s compound team gold medal for Penang together with Syed Imran Syed Ibrahim and Muhamad Faris Jamaludin in the last Sukma in 2018 in Perak.
Kayalvhily, who is taking up a management course in her first varsity year, bagged a team compound women’s bronze medal at the 31st SEA Games in Hanoi last month.
According to coach G. Shamani, 36, Penang will be sending a 16-member team – eight men and eight women – to the 20th Sukma in Kuala Lumpur.
“We will be selecting five senior archers and 11 first-timers for the Sukma. As such, we’ve set a modest target of one gold. All our archers are either studying in universities, colleges or schools.
“Some of the our 2018 Sukma archers are now overaged and have gone on to pursue their careers.
“Our youngest archer is 13 years old,” Shamani, a former national archer herself, told Buletin Mutiara during an interview, referring to M. Khiritigaa, a Form One student of St Georges’ Girls Secondary School.
In the last Sukma, Penang claimed one gold, four silver and two bronze medals.
There are currently 20 archers in the training squad under Shamani (compound coach) and Salina Putriana (recurve coach) at the Sungai Nibong Pesta site.
“We’ve been training here for about seven months, five times a week with each practice session lasting three hours, and a gym workout one day per week.
“We’ve just got permission to train at the Residency field, our usual training ground. But I think for the moment, we’ll be here because we want to expose them to train in windy conditions here,” said Shamani, who won the state Women’s Coach Excellence Award 2020.
Penang, she said, has a fairly good build-up by participating in three championships so far.
In the first National circuit held in Selangor, Penang won one silver and four bronze medals. Then, in the Selangor Open, Penang took four silver and four bronze medals, and in the second National circuit in Johor Baru last week, Penang captured one silver and one bronze medal.
For further exposure, Penang will be sending a team to participate in the National Youth Championships in Johor Baru from July 20 to 24.
Shamani is now keeping her fingers crossed that the state archers can obtain new equipment as soon as possible.
“Hopefully, we can get the equipment at least one month before Sukma. It took two weeks or so to get the equipment from overseas, but since the Covid-19 pandemic, it is quite a long process.
“Khambeswaran, for instance, just managed to get his equipment from the United States after waiting for six months,” Shamani said.
Story by K.H. Ong
Pix by Adleena Rahayu Ahmad Radzi