NSAM aim to sharpen bench strength with foreign firing power

On target: Haritz Iklil Hessly Hafiz (left) and Gan Chen Jie with their bronze medal in the 10m mixed team at the SEA Games.

PETALING JAYA: The National Shooting Association of Malaysia (NSAM) are planning to rope in a foreign coach to narrow the gap between their Podium Prog­ramme shooters and back-up athletes.

Said NSAM secretary Jasni Shaari: “We already have a local coach handling the back-ups, but an experienced foreign professional can further enhance the system.”

“Our aim is to reduce the gap between the groups, and at the same time allow our local coaches to benefit from knowledge transfer.”

At present, South Korean husband-and-wife coaching duo Park Cheol-wan (rifle) and Kong Hyun-ah (pistol) handle the podium squad.

Jasni added that preparations for this year’s Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, as well as next year’s SEA Games, are already in motion.

Malaysia brought home four gold, one silver, and eight bronze medals from the Thailand SEA Games last December, and Jasni said it was an encouraging sign.

“For the 2027 SEA Games, we will be focusing on events that can we potentially win more gold medals,” he said.

“The silver medals we won in Thailand could be improved to become gold, so the chances of winning more medals next year is possible,” he said.

The winners in Bangkok were men – Johnathan Wong (10m air pistol), Haritz Iklil Hessly Hafiz (50m air rifle three positions), Ong Chee Keng (trap event) and Gan Chen Jie (women’s 50m rifle three positions).