KUALA LUMPUR, July 23 — National archer Syaqiera Mashayikh – the first Malaysian athlete to be in action at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics – got off to a good start when she improved on her personal best in the ranking round of the women’s individual recurve event today.
Syaqiera, 20, ended the competition in 43rd spot out of 64 archers at the Yumenoshima Park Archery Field in Tokyo with 630 points to improve on her previous record of 619 points which she achieved at the final Olympic qualifier in Paris last month.
Syaqiera will face Russian Elena Osipova in the first round on Tuesday (July 27).
The youngster, who hails from Segamat, Johor, is the third Malaysian woman archer to feature in the Olympics after Mon Redee Sut Txi (Athens 2004) and Nurul Syafiqah Hashim (London 2012).
Meanwhile, 20-year-old South Korean An San showed that she’s the one to beat when she set a new Olympic record of 680 points to erase the previous mark of 673 points set by Ukraine’s Lina Herasymenko at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
Another national archer, Khairul Annuar Mohamad is set to compete in the ranking round of the men’s individual recurve event at the same venue at noon today.
— Bernama
