PARIS – National archer Syaqiera Mashayikh started on the right footing when she scored her personal best to take the 14th position in the individual ranking round of the women’s recurve event at the 2024 Paris Olympics today.
The 23-year-old archer from Segamat managed to collect a total of 663 points from 72 arrows at Invalides here, surpassing her previous best of 649 points.
Today’s result is only six points less than the national record of 669 points recorded by Ariana Nur Dania Mohamad Zairi at the Olympic Qualification tournament in Antalya, Turkey last month.
Ranking in the top 20 out of 64 archers, gives Syaqiera an easier path in the 1/32 elimination round on July 30, when she will meet Alexandra Mirca from Moldova, who finished in 51st position with 631 points.
In her debut at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Syaqiera took 43rd place with 630 points, before losing to Elena Osipova from Russia in the 1/32 elimination round.
Meanwhile, Ariana Nur Dania, who is making her debut in the Olympics, will face a tougher path after finishing today’s round ranked 50th with 633 points, far behind her national record.
The 19-year-old archer will face Italy’s Chiara Rebagliati who finished 15th with 663 points on July 31.
Another national archer Nurul Azreena Mohamad Fazil will also face a similar fate when she took 60th position with 622 points and she will face a fierce challenge from fifth placed archer, Elif Berra Gokkır of Turkiye with 671 points.
The ranking of the women’s team was also determined through the same event with Malaysia taking the 10th position with a total of 1,918 points.
The national representatives will meet the Indonesian trio of Diananda Choirunisa, Syifa Nurafifah Kamal and Rezza Octavia who are ranked seventh with 1,960 points in the 1/8 elimination round this Sunday, and if they advance they will meet China in the quarter finals.
In the meantime, 21-year-old South Korean Lim Sihyeon was in brilliant form to top today’s round by breaking the Olympic and world records of her teammates with 694 points.
It surpassed Kang Chaeyoung’s world record of 692 points at the 2019 World Championships in the Netherlands, while the previous Games record was An San’s record of 680 when she won the gold in Tokyo 2020.
Another South Korean representative, Nam Suhyeon (688) and Yang Xiaolei (673) from China ranked second and third respectively. – July 25, 2024