Ariana Nur Dania Mohd Zairi, Syaqiera Mashayikh and Nurul Azreena Mohamad Fazil rose above tough weather conditions to make history for Malaysian archery.
They held their nerves to earn a quota slot for the women’s team recurve event at the Paris Olympics and came close to shocking top seeds and Hangzhou Asian Games silver medallists China before going down 4-5 in the final of the women’s team recurve event in the Final Olympic Qualifier in Antalya, Turkiye on Friday.
They had earlier fought back from two sets down to beat 10th seeds Britain 5-3 in the semi-finals.
Their place in Paris Olympics was already secured after a convincing 6-0 win over Colombia in the quarter-finals.
All the semi-finalists are assured of Olympic quota slots.
Malaysia were ranked sixth in the qualifying with 1,962 points. The team had a bye in the first round of the elimination round and then beat Vietnam 5-3 to reach the quarter-finals.
By qualifying for the team event, Ariana, Syaqiera and Azreena will get to shoot in the individual recurve event at the Olympics as well.
The 19-year-old Ariana was proud of the team’s achievement. She had earlier qualified for the Olympics individual recurve event through the Asian qualifier in Bangkok in November but the team’s qualification frees up the quota slot.
“What’s most important is that the team qualify as now everyone will get to compete in both team and individual,” said Ariana.
“We didn’t set the bar too high but honestly, we didn’t expect to get into the Olympics. We’ve trained for this moment and we’ve given our best.
“We’re very happy to be one of the four teams to qualify for the Olympics,” said Ariana, who will be making her Olympic debut together with Azreena.
It will be the second Olympic outing for Syaqiera as she also took part in the previous Games in Tokyo three years ago.
“Honestly, there were nervous moments and even the Colombia archer missed a shot in the second shot,” said Ariana.
“But we kept calm and encouraged each other.
“The conditions were difficult as it was raining and there was strong wind and thunder.
‘‘But we are happy we fought well all the way and we only lost by one point in the final,” added Ariana.
