BARCELONA: It was a bittersweet day for Khairul Anuar Mohamed when he reached a career high No. 3 in the world but crashed out in Stage 3 of the Archery World Cup in Medellin, Colombia.
The 21-year-old from Kemaman lost 7-1 (29-29, 25-30, 27-29, 26-29) to unheralded Zhuang Guodong of China in the round of 32 on Friday.
What makes Khairul’s loss all the more painful is that Guodong’s name is not even listed in the FITA world ranking database!
Malaysia’s challenge in the men’s recurve individual elimination then came to an end following the exits of Atiq Bazil Bakri and Haziq Kamaruddin.
National team rookie Atiq, ranked 199th in the world, deserves credit for beating the experienced Jake Kaminski of the United States 7-3 (28-27, 29-29, 28-28, 27-27, 27-26) to reach the round of 16 – his best since making his World Cup debut this year.
Kaminski is a regular member of Team USA, who won numerous medals in World Cup and were silver medallists in the team event at the London Olympics last year. Atiq lost 2-6 (26-23, 25-27, 28-29, 27-28) to eventual finalist Luxembourg’s Jeff Henckels in the round of 16.
Haziq, fresh from an upset win over world No. 5 and reigning European champion Rick Van der Ven of Holland, failed to get past Frances Gael Prevost in the round of 32 despite another brilliant performance.
Haziq can walk tall despite losing 1-7 (26-29, 29-29, 29-30, 27-28) to world No. 10 Van der Ven. The final will see Henckels squaring off with London Olympics bronze medallist Dai Xiaoxiang of China.
The trio of Khairul, Atiq and Haziq will now switch their focus to the team event, where they are seeded second behind Mexico.
Malaysia open their campaign against the Dominican Republic.
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