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Room for improvement but shooters on track for SEA Games

SINGAPORE — As the dust settles after 10 days of competition at the 38th South-east Asian Shooting Championships (SEASA), Singapore’s national shooters can reflect on their haul of four gold, nine silver and six bronze medals to figure out how to do better in six months’ time.

Jasmine Ser nabbed a silver in the individual women’s 50m rifle three positions. TODAY FILE PHOTO

Jasmine Ser nabbed a silver in the individual women’s 50m rifle three positions. TODAY FILE PHOTO

SINGAPORE — As the dust settles after 10 days of competition at the 38th South-east Asian Shooting Championships (SEASA), Singapore’s national shooters can reflect on their haul of four gold, nine silver and six bronze medals to figure out how to do better in six months’ time.

The SEASA — and its accompanying 2014 Singapore Invitational Shooting Championships — were test events for next June’s SEA Games here. More than testing out the refurbished National Shooting Centre in Choa Chu Kang and giving organising personnel a dry run, the events also gave Singapore’s shooters an early peek at the form of their regional rivals.

Singapore Shooting Association (SSA) has set a six-gold target for next year’s SEA Games, and its president Michael Vaz said yesterday there is room for improvement, though there is no cause for concern for now.

“I was hoping it would be better, but I don’t really know why we didn’t fare better. The shotgun was an utter disappointment for skeet, and there is a need for this to be polished up and we will try to figure out what happened,” he said.

“We will first conduct a debrief on the facilities and the performance of the team. Six months is enough time (to resolve this). A number of our shooters were also not competing this time due to the holidays and examinations.”

Against regional rivals Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines and Myanmar in SEASA, sharpshooter Poh Lip Meng’s victory in the men’s 50m pistol was the sole individual title of four gold medals, the others being the women’s team 10m air rifle, women’s team 25m standard pistol, and men’s team 25m centre fire pistol.

In shotgun, the men’s trap and skeet teams won two bronze medals, while Mohd Zain Amat claimed a silver in the men’s individual trap.

On the final day yesterday, the women’s 50m rifle three positions team of Jasmine Ser, Cheng Jian Huan and Joanna Fong claimed silver, with Ser also nabbing silver in the individual event, behind Malaysia’s Nur Suryani Taibi.

The events tested the National Shooting Centre and SAFRA Yishun — newly outfitted with a S$2 million electronic system — as well as its officials, staff and volunteers, with Vaz saying teething problems did occur but were quickly resolved.

“We only took over the range from Sport Singapore the week before the competition and I think we did well,” he said. “Several of the team managers from the other countries said they love it so much that they want to come back.” LOW LIN FHOONG

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