PETALING JAYA: The National Sports Council (NSC) welcome the announcement by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to include mixed team compound archery event in the list of medals to be contested at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
IOC's announcement on the confirmed list of events on Wednesday marks a historic milestone for archery as it will be the first time that the event is featured in the Games.
The compound mixed team competition joins the existing five recurve events – men’s and women’s individual, men’s and women’s team, and mixed team – on the programme, bringing the total number of archery medals available to six.
NSC director general Jefri Ngadirin said the addition of mixed team compound event provides an additional opportunity for Malaysia to chase medals at the world's premier sporting event, based on the record of achievements that the country's compound archers have produced in recent times.
"As everyone is aware, Malaysia have always managed to have archers who have qualified on merit for the recurve event for previous Olympic Games, including three archers during the 2024 edition in Paris.
"For the compound event, among the national archers who have created proud achievements are Alang Arif Aqil Mohd Ghazalli and Fatin Nurfatehah Mat Salleh who won the gold medal in the mixed team event at the Asian Cup in Bangkok last February.
"The country's most consistent compound archer is the experienced athlete Juwaidi Mazuki, who was ranked 20th in the world at one point in addition to winning a bronze medal at the World Compound Archery Championships in Antalya, Turkey in 2023.
"We currently have eight compound archers in the Podium Program, namely four male archers and four female archers since 2018," said Jefri in a statement.
