After a miserable ending for rifle shooter Nur Ayuni Farhana Abdul Halim, things managed take a brighter approach for the national shooting team as Jonathan Wong Guan Jie successfully earned his ticket to the Rio Olympics this August after a sterling performance in the men’s individual 10m Air Pistol event during the Asian Olympics Qualifying Championship in New Delhi, India yesterday.
Jonathan became the first national shooter to qualify for the prestigious event this year after securing a gold medal in the event, which was held at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range.
The 23 year-old elite, whom capped the qualifying round at third place with 578 points, had no problem dealing with tough opponent Alanazi Atallah from Saudi Arabia in the elimination stage and won the gold medal with a total of 198.7, just 0.4 points ahead of Alanazi.
The bronze medal was handed to Kim Jong Su of North Korea with a total of 176.9 points.
Compatriots Eddy Chew and Choo Wen Yan finished 19th (570 points) and 34th (565 points) respectively among 49 shooters in the qualifying round.
Four other Malaysian shooters- Mohd Hadafi Jaafar, Mohd Lutfi Othman, Zul Haziq Rosli and Mohd Zubair Muhammad will be gunning for their slot in the Rio Olympics in the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions tomorrow.
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