PETALING JAYA: Japan, led by 2012 London Olympic silver medallist Takaharu Furukawa, denied Malaysia their first men’s recurve team medal in the Archery World Cup final round in Antalya.
The Malaysian trio of Khairul Anuar Mohamad, Atiq Bazil Bakri and Haziq Kamaruddin fell 2-6 to Japan in the playoff for the bronze medal in the Turkish city, which hosted the third round of the World Cup series.
Malaysia were looking to claim their sixth medal in the World Cup series since 2009 after reaching the medal rounds in Antalya.
They were placed second on four occasions (Boe, France, 2008, Antalya 2008, Shanghai 2011 and Medellin 2013) and third once (Antalya 2009).
Despite this, it was still Malaysia’s best showing this season, having lost in the quarter-finals at the season-opening leg in Shanghai followed by a first-round exit in Medellin, Colombia last month.
Malaysia opened their first-round campaign by scoring an upset 5-3 win over London Olympics gold medallists Italy. They then went on to beat Asian Games rivals China 5-3 to reach the last four before bowing out 0-6 to South Korea.
The Koreans won the gold after brushing aside Russia 6-0.
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