Source: http://www.theborneopost.com/?p=24455
Wednesday, September 5th, 2007
Another RM100,000 to build Miris first open archery field
By Jacqueline Raphael
MIRI: Sarawak Archery Association (Pemasa) Miri is in need of another RM100,000 to kickstart the construction of Miris first open archery field as part of the effort to hone archers in this division into Olympic-level athletes.
Its chairman Pelly Lee said Pemasa Miri had acquired a piece of land for the purpose but is still short of RM100,000. The cost of the whole project is estimated at RM150,000.
The land located within the Sport Centre at Jalan Kipas, next to Miri Indoor and Outdoor Stadiums, was allocated by the Ministry of Social Development and Urbanisation.
Pelly said Miri had tremendous potential in producing professional archers but the dream was hard to achieve as Miri was yet to have an open archery field for training its athletes.
Im sure our archers can upgrade themselves better when undergoing training in an open field. Im also confident that this will help boost their performance, she said during a recent press conference here.
Currently there is only one archery centre in Miri namely Kings Archery Centre, she said. It is an in-house centre located in Bintang Plaza Shopping Complex.
The centre operated by Pemasa Miri coach David Ting has been used as training ground for members of Pemasa Miri comprising 50 adults and 80 students.
According to Ting, who was also present during the press conference, the idea to run an in-house archery centre came to him during a business trip to Singapore in year 2000.
Following the trip, he held a meeting with then Pemasa Miri chairman Azhari Bujang and made plans for the setup of an in-house archery centre, as there was no other centre in Miri dedicated solely to archery.
With support and guidance from Azahari, I managed to operate the in-house centre. So far, over 600 adult archers have been using our centre, Ting said.
To date, some 15 archers are participating in the youth archery programme launched by the centre in March 2003, he said.
Two of the students have represented Sarawak in the Youth Under-18 Circuit and one of them bagged five gold medals, he said, adding that in December 2003, another student won five gold medals for the State.
In 2004, a total of 34 students represented Sarawak in the same circuit and out of that number, 12 took home gold medals under the categories contested.
We usually use the outdoor stadium and council field for practices but it is difficult as we are sharing the venue with other sport associations, which limits our training, he said.
Ting said with a proper training ground and practice, Miri archers can go on to higher levels, as they had shown great results in various championships participated in.
Im sure one day the sport of archery can make Malaysia known at international championships. All it takes are a proper training ground, regular practice and determination, he added.