KUALA LUMPUR: National archer Mohd Juwaidi Mazuki (pix) takes another step closer to winning a gold medal after reaching the semi-finals of the men’s individual compound event at the Archery World Cup 2023 Stage 1 in Antalya, Turkiye, last night.
According to the tournament’s official website, Mohd Juwaidi had no problem defeating India’s Ojas Pravin Deotale in the quarter-finals after his opponent created a surprise by knocking out world number six archer Mathias Fullerton of Denmark in the third round.
The 32-year-old Malaysian who is ranked 161 in the world, beat Deotale 150-148 and will face the world’s 11th ranked archer from Slovakia Jozef Bosansky in the semi-final stage tomorrow.
If Mohd Juwaid, the winner of the two gold medals of the 31st SEA Games in Hanoi, Vietnam last year, makes it to the final, he will be meeting either Mike Schloesser of the Netherlands or US archer Sawyer Sullivan who will be battling in the other semi-final.
Earlier, Mohd Juwaidi rewrote his national record in the qualifying round on Wednesday when he collected a total of 714 points after 72 arrows thus erasing the old record of 709 points created at the 2019 Asian Archery Championship.
In the meantime, elite archer Fatin Nurfatehah Mat Salleh who is the country’s sole representative in the women’s individual compound event was eliminated in the second round after narrowly losing to Avneet Kaur from India 145-146.
However, Fatin Nurfatehah has the opportunity to make up for her disappointment in the mixed team compound event with Mohd Juwaidi as they await the opponents between Estonia and Poland in the second round tomorrow, after being given a ‘bye’ in the first round.
Meanwhile, the wish of the trio of Syaqiera Mashayikh, Ku Nurin Afiqah Ku Ruzaini and Nurul Azreena Mohamad Fazil to advance further in the women’s team recurve competition was not met when they lost to the Danish team 2-6 early in the first round.
Syaqiera and Ku Nurin Afiqah, however, will compete in the individual recurve event, respectively, facing Taiwanese archers Peng Chia-Mao and Chiu Yi-Ching in the first round scheduled to take place today.
Syaqiera who made her debut at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan three years ago also partnered with Muhammad Danish Amsyar Norazlan in the mixed team recurve competition and will face Riau Salsabilla-Diananda Choirunisa from Indonesia in the first round today.
Archery World Cup Stage 1 in Antalya takes place from April 18 to 23.
After this, the Stage 2 competition is scheduled to take place in Shanghai, China from May 16 to 21 followed by Stage 3 in Medellin, Colombia June 13-18 and Stage 4 in Paris, France August 15-20 before the final round is expected to be held in Hermosillo, Mexico, in September. -Bernama