2017 Malaysia Cup 3

Round 3, the final outing...

We shot in round 1 and 2 and were ranked 9th and 17th after the points were tallied. This is expected to drop after the third round in Banting. Jeff, my shooting buddy and I had trained over the past couple of months to get used to our shot placements and grouping.
Coach Lau (recently certified) had come out of recluse to join us in Banting for the shoot.

And as usual...

Kampung tournaments will be kampung tournaments. This event is a non-sanctioned tournament in search of three top barebow archers to represent the country in the Thailand Princess Cup archery event in Bangkok. Come June, three men will compete against the best barebow archers from Thailand and Singapore.

Team Subang Barebow Archers in Banting

Jeff taking aim during the practise session

The Malaysia Cup is a joint effort by several archery clubs in Selangor and Perak. The main person is Sharani Ibrahim, a religious teacher who is also one the leading traditional archers in the country.
Sharani took it upon himself to organise a league system tournament where the finals will determine who represents the country in Thailand.
Since the first tournament in Simpang Pulai last year, the response has been promising. There are a rising number of barebow archers who are following the league.

A fun shoot...

Jeff and I treated the event as a fun shoot. Mostly to get used to tournament pressure. Shooting in a high-pressure situation helped us to maintain our composure and focus on scoring on the target face.
The target faces used in this tournament are printed on vinyl banners. I guess it's the organiser's way to save cost. 
Unlike the Bangi and Kota Baru barebow events, the target faces are stacked very close to each other. 
Event the target buds are smaller than those stipulated in sanctioned events.

The kampung target faces, an archer's nightmare...

Expect the unexpected...

I was assigned target face "C" and one of my main concern is the last ring on the target face. It's just too low and if you miss, the arrow will dive into the ground. So, my strategy was to place my shots high. Doesn't matter if I miss the ring, as long as the arrows are on the target bud.

 

Jeff taking his shot during the official round

Jeff, Wan Rohafizan and Coach Lau

After 30 arrows in round one, my scores were appalling. I managed to score 132 points. It was the worst shot since round 2 in Simpang Pulai.
In round 2, it was time to turn thing around. During the first few ends, I managed to gain a bit of points. My best ends were the last four before wrapping up round 2. I scored 180 points but the final tally is questionable. We submitted the scores to the kampung judges and I was 10 points short. In the final rankings after two rounds, I came in at 24th place. Jeff was ranked 39th while Coach Lau came in at 35th.
On the whole, I was pretty happy with my performance because the "C" target face is one my weakest shot placements.
In the months to come, I will work on my form, especially my release and follow-through.

Good memories and training...

All good things said and done, I don't think we managed to collect enough league points to make it into the top 20 ranking.
Sixteen archers from the barebow event from rounds 1, 2 and 3 will slug it out in University Teknologi Petronas on April 1. May the best man wins...

Malaysia Cup Archery - Round 1

Malaysia "indoor" Archery Tournament...

Fooling around before the shootout...

We came to know about a local indoor archery tournament taking place in Perak. The gang and I have been training our shot placement and agreed to take part.
This is also in preparation for the 2017 Princess Cup Archery tournament in Bangkok, Thailand.

Tournament day

I made arrangements to round up the Subang Barebow Archers team and shoot straight off to Simpang Pulai in Perak on Sept 24.
The plan was to leave at 04:30am and arrive just in time for registration and get along with the day's program.
Traditional archery was first on the list and there were at least 132 people taking part in the event.
Our buddy Mr Lau was first to go as he was prepped with the first group.

Lau, sleep-walking to the field.. Hahah!

Michelle setting up her bow

Listening to the briefing

Lau, at the shooting line

Something we didn't quite expect...

The "indoor" tournament had turned out to be an outdoor event. The shooting line was set at 18-meters with 10 shooting lanes.
We didn't expect the organization to be so bad, that the shoot actually started an hour late. Four groups were queued for the event. 
It was bad enough that most of us had grumbled about the repetition of the traditional archery event.
Instead of the usual one-round, archers were given two. 
Such, said the organizer, was done to give "satisfaction" to those who came from afar.
It was an agony to wait till our turn was up, nine hours later!

The advantage of training and mental conditioning

Taking my shot

Michelle in the second group

Taking scores

Michelle in action

My spotter...

Towards the last stage of our shot placement training in Subang Jaya, we took our shots mostly on a 40cm, 10-ring target face.
This helped us to hone our grouping and shot placements. 
When we got called to the shooting line, we did exactly what we had trained for.
I took my time, much to the frustration of other archers in the group. We were given 1 minutes 30 seconds to empty our quiver.
On the average, I took about 20 seconds to nock, aim and shoot.
My arrows landed mostly in the blue, red and yellow. 
In the first round, I scored 165 points and on the second-round, my scores improved at 186. I was a bit nervous during the first few ends, but having the advantage of shooting at the Princess Cup in Thailand had taught me to take my time. Pace each shot and try to make as few mistakes as possible. 
We were tested under rain and shine and I must say that Michelle did extremely well by scoring 168 points in the first round and getting 177 points in the second.
By the time she was done, it was way past 7:30pm. It got dark and we were done. We weren't bothered to go into the quarter-finals. 

Ranking 

Out of 54 archers in the barebow category, we came in at 10 and 11 respectively. We qualified for the next round, but were too beat to carry on. We have a two-hour drive to get back to Subang Jaya. That said, we had to forgo the shootout. 

The good...

Well, I have to say that the fellowship of archers was the main draw for this tournament. There were a lot of nice folks at the event ground. I met some familiar faces and some folks from the Monster Chill tournament in Malacca last year.

The bad...

Bad organization really marred the reputation of the tournament managers. The event went on until midnight. Many of those who qualified did a walk-over. 

The ugly...

I have to say that safety was the major issue here. While some folks were taking their practise shots, people can be seen walking in the background. And some idiots were smoking on the shooting line, this is a no-no in terms of sporting ethics.