Young shooters fly Singapore flag high

SINGAPORE — The focus may have been on their senior team-mates competing in the 38th South East Asia Shooting Championship (SEASA) but it was the young shooters who stole the show at the Singapore Invitational Shooting Championship 2014.

The two championships, hosted concurrently at SAFRA Yishun and the National Shooting Centre in Choa Chu Kang, are warm-up events for next June’s SEA Games.

Yesterday’s SEASA competition opener in Yishun saw a Taiwan clean sweep in the men’s 10m air rifle final, with Lu Shao-Chuan heading off team-mates Chow Ern-Chun and Chen Chua-An.

Over in the Invitational, Gregg Chan won back some home pride when he edged out Japan’s Kazuma Hashizume in the men’s 10m air rifle final. The 14-year-old Singaporean won the elimination-style finals with a total of 203.2 points, ahead of the Japanese (202.1), while Gregg’s national youth team-mate Ong Yong Qing took the bronze (180.7).

Gregg, from Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), was delighted to claim his first international title.

“This is my first time competing in the championship and it was very nerve-racking, especially when I shot 9.0 and thought the Japanese shooter was going to take the lead,” he said.

“I feel very happy and this really gives me confidence. I am looking forward to next year’s SEA Games and I am trying to get into the team.”

Singapore’s junior shooters added two more gold to the tally yesterday, with Wong Ting Wei winning the junior men’s 10m air rifle, before linking up with Keith Chan and Sean Tay to clinch the team gold ahead of Taiwan and Vietnam.

The men’s 10m air rifle team of Mohd Irwan Abdul Rahman, Wesley Leong and Ong Jun Hong scored a silver in the SEASA team event with their combined total of 1833.7. Taiwan claimed gold in 1849.7, while the Malaysians took home the bronze in 1823.1.

More than 450 shooters from 19 foreign and local national shooting associations and clubs are competing in the both championships, which started yesterday and ends on Dec 17.