WINNING MOMENTS

By Naveen Kanagalingam

Picture by Aundry Gan

Together with the swimmers, the shooters (pictured) were the stars of the official first day of the SEA Games competition in Laos on Thursday (Dec 10), winning three gold medals. Here's a glimpse of what happened for two of the gold medallists - Goh Jia Yi and Zhang Jin.

Rare Situation

The Women's 10m Air Rifle qualifying round ended with a rather rare situation as the top three teams, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, were tied with a total score of 1167 each. Thus the total number of “inner hits”, which are shots that hit the inner most circle of the target, determined the winner. Jia Yi (and her team mates Haw Siew Ping and Aquilah Binte Sudhir) finished third, clinching a bronze with a total of 62 inner hits, just barely missing a second place finish which instead went to Malaysia.

Nail Biting Affair

Jia Yi then went on to compete in the Women's 10m Air Rifle event which turned out to be a nail biting affair. She went into the shoot two points behind scoreboard leader Chotphibunsin Thanyalak of Thailand. But she managed to catch up to force a shoot-off, which she won. That meant that the gold was hers. Asked about the experience, she said, “I just tried my best and did what I had to do.” She added, “I was purely focused on my shooting and nothing else.” So focused that she didn’t know she had won until she turned around and found the crowd cheering.

Shaky Start

For Zhang Jin, the Men's 10m Air Rifle event was not as dramatic. After securing gold for Singapore in the team event (with Jonathan Koh and Ong Jun Hong), he qualified for the individual finals. He started at the top of the scoreboard with his score of 591, ahead of Jonathan (589). Despite a shaky start, he maintained his lead and finished with 690.6 to win gold, just edging out Jonathan (690.5).

Team Gold

Zhang Jin recalled, “During the first few shots I was trying to figure out what I was doing wrong and rectifying it. In the end, it all came down to staying focused.” Asked if he preferred starting finals in the lead or playing catch up, he said, “I prefer holding the lead over playing catch up. That’s why qualifiers are important. They help create the gap.” Despite his individual gold, he was more excited about the team’s gold medal. He said, “We’ve been shooting together for three years now. It was awesome when we won as a team.”