August 24, 2008 16:20 PM

Mark Archery And Cycling As London Beckons

By Tham Choy Lin

BEIJING, Aug 24 (Bernama) -- Malaysia's silver medal from the Beijing Olympics flew home last week with shuttler Lee Chong Wei.

The country's Olympic hopes have always rested with badminton with the gold remaining elusive but the past two weeks in the Chinese capital have given an exciting glimpse of bigger opportunities as London beckons.

Keep an eye on archery and cycling. Youngsters in the two sports made it into the quarterfinals in their debut in the world's biggest sporting event, vying against the world's best.

Mark the names of Azizulhasni Awang -- he is 20 and as exuberant as his energy on the wheels -- and the archery trio of Cheng Chu Sian, Wan Khalmizam Abd Aziz and Muhd Marbawi Sulaiman.

"They have proven that they can go to any meet in the world and can be competitive.

"Azizulhasni has plenty of potential, just look at his sprint race against Chris Hoy of Britain, he came up so close just a quarter of a wheel," said chef-de-mission Datuk Ho Koh Chye.

Coming to Beijing was a bonus for Azizulhasni who was setting himself up for London when he surprised himself by making the cut one Games earlier.

He ended up as the only non-Caucasian in the last eight of the men's sprint.

"Yes, I want to go to London, that was my target. I am encouraged by the congratulations and well done remarks from the other teams, they predict that I have a bright future; I am more determined than ever," said the Dungun cyclist after the sprint contest.

Chu Sian, ranked world number 13 before the Olympics, was more reticent about the future.

He should be graduating from Universiti Putra Malaysia next year but remains in his first year because of the time he took off for training.

Asked if he would try to qualify for London, he said, "It depends if there are juniors to take over and on the National Sports Council. A lot of people, including the media, had high hopes that we would win a medal here, but this was our first time, we have no Olympic experience at all."

Their run is remarkable considering that the archers have to hop onto the learning curve while competing abroad because they had none of the big shot experience at home.

Remarkable too for a still obscure sport in Malaysia that had only seen rapid development and results, all in less than five years.

Still in their early 20s, the archery trio have plenty of shelf life left and they have only just had their first bite of the Olympics where sportsmen more than a decade older than them are still shooting arrows and dominating.

In badminton, young men's doubles Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong need to get their act together or part ways in search of new partners and get ready for London where very likely, a new winner awaits because the bulk of the present crop of players would be reaching their end of the careers by 2012.

The Badminton Association of Malaysia will do well not to rest on their laurels with Chong Wei, who would be 30 by the next Olympics, and the sooner they dig the barrel for the next singles talent the better.

Ho, who retired from the National Sports Council as coaching director, said the country should focus attention on measurable sports or skill-demanding disciplines.

"I strongly believe that we put money in sports which we can work at and do well in events like boxing and weighflifting. It puts us on a level playing field," he said, pointing to Thailand's taste of Olympics success in the two sports.

"The other point is the Phelps factor; spent a million on one good athlete and he gets eight golds, that's better than 20 million going into a team sport," he said referring to the exploits of Michael Phelps who swum away with eight gold medals from Beijing.

If the king of the pool was his own country, he would have lined himself up in the top 10 on the medal tally.

Imagine the gap between the United States and China, topping the Olympics for the first time, without Phelps.

-- BERNAMA

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