Malaysian shooters draw blanks again at Asian Games
KUALA LUMPUR: A familiar drop in consistency proved costly for national shooters Johnathan Wong Guanjie and Nurul Syasya Nadiah Arifin as they missed out on the medal round at the Asian Games today.
The Malaysian shooting team encountered another setback at the Asian Games, failing to qualify for the medal round. Johnathan Wong Guanjie and Nurul Syasya Nadiah Arifin, the national shooters, needed a top-four finish in the qualification round but only managed an eighth-place position out of 21 teams. In the 10m air pistol mixed team event, they combined for a score of 576 points, just four points behind Indonesia, India, Iran, and South Korea.
India secured the gold with a Games and Asian record score of 484.6. Earlier, Malaysia had qualified for contention after a strong performance, but they faltered in the final stages, allowing other nations to surpass them. National coach Firdaus Abd Rahim cited a recurring technical flaw rather than mental issues, explaining that the shooters tend to lose sharpness after reaching peak scores.
Both Syasya and Johnathan displayed this pattern, with Syasya's scores dropping from 99 to 94 in crucial moments. Syasya's individual tally was 290, while Johnathan scored 286. This marks the end of Johnathan's campaign in Aichi, with him focusing on recovery before the World Championships in Qatar in November, the first Olympic qualifier for the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
Syasya will have a brief rest before competing in the women's 25m pistol individual event alongside Alia Sazana Azahari. Malaysia's pursuit of a shooting medal will continue, with the rifle squad set to compete in the women's 50m rifle 3 positions event.
Written by urgent.news from New Straits Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
