SUBANG: National shooter Hasli Izwan Amir Hasan is disappointed that there will be just one gold medal on offer in the 25m pistol events at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games from July 23-Aug 3.
“Previously, the Commonwealth Games offered six gold medals in the individual and pairs of the three 25m pistol events – centre fire, standard pistol and rapid fire.
“But for Glasgow, there will be no 25m centre fire and 25m standard pistol events. There’s only the 25m rapid fire pistol event.
“To make it worse, there will be no pairs’ event either. This will make it harder for pistol shooters to win medals,” said Hasli, who won two silvers in the 25m individual rapid fire and pairs events in the 2010 New Delhi Games.
The 37-year-old Perak shooter has blamed his poor form of late to a lack of training, claiming he only trains once a day “because I have to report to work with the Youth and Sports Ministry”.
“I was given time off by the Ministry to train full-time since 2008, but they asked me to report for work in January.
“However, I hope they will give me a break to compete in the two back-to-back World Cups in Munich and Slovenia, in the first two weeks of June as preparation for the Commonwealth Games.
“This will be my fifth Commonwealth Games and I don’t intend to return empty-handed from Glasgow,” said Hasli, who expects a strong challenge from India’s Vijay Kumar, who was the silver medallist in the 2012 London Olympics in the 25m rapid fire pistol event.
“Vijay beat me for the gold in New Delhi and he will again start as favourite in Glasgow,” he said.
Hasli, who has been representing Malaysia since 1993, had no problems winning the gold medal in the 25m rapid fire pistol event after accumulating 27 points in the final of the Tun Hanif Trophy Shooting Championships at the Subang Shooting Range on Thursday.
He had amassed 575 points in the preliminary round.
Meanwhile, Kuala Lumpur’s 18-year-old Zul Haziq Rosli shattered his own national junior record in the boys’ 10m air rifle individual event with a new score of 615.8 points, erasing his previous mark of 615.3 which he set in the Tun Tan Siew Sin Championships last month.
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