Haiqal Danish Erases a Record by Eighteen Points

Records are usually broken by a point or two. Muhammad Haiqal Danish bin Syamsul Affandi broke one by eighteen. The Pahang recurve archer opened his SUKMA XXII campaign with 339 over the first distance — a mark that itself erased a benchmark set only two years ago — and closed with 335 for a total of 674. The old SUKMA record, Muhammad Saiful Islam Mohd Rizuwan’s 656 from Sarawak 2024, was not so much beaten as left behind.

It set the tone for a day on which five more records fell at INSPEN, taking the tournament’s running total to ten across both bow styles. And then, in the afternoon, the elimination brackets did what brackets do, and made a great deal of the morning’s seeding irrelevant.

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A Double Record for Pahang

Haiqal Danish’s 339 in the first distance broke the 36-arrow record of 334, held by Sarawak’s Liew Yu Jie since SUKMA Sarawak 2024. His 335 in the second was the best of that distance too. Nobody else in a field of fifty came within fifteen points of his total.

Behind him, Johor’s Wan Qayyim Syahmi bin Wan Mahathir took second on 659 and Sabah’s Quik Chern Xin third on 658 — both of them, like Haiqal Danish, past the old record. Three men beat a mark that had stood since 2024, and Pahang’s Muhammad Amirul Haziq missed it by a single point on 655.

Joey Tan Breaks Her Own Mark — Then Wins Top Seed by Ten-Count

Sarawak’s Joey Tan Xing Lei opened with 329, breaking the recurve women’s 36-arrow SUKMA record of 325 — a record she had set herself at SUKMA Sarawak 2024. It was the best single distance of the women’s competition by five points.

What followed was rather tighter. Joey Tan’s second distance of 314 left her on 643. Selangor’s Nur Ieka Hariesya binti Zainal Habsahli, steadier across both halves with 324 and 319, finished on exactly the same total. Both archers had shot five Xs. The top seed came down to the count of tens — nineteen for Joey Tan, twelve for Nur Ieka Hariesya — and the Sarawak archer took first by that margin and no other.

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Two More Team Records — and a Team That Broke Its Own and Still Finished Third

Pahang’s men, with Haiqal Danish joined by Muhammad Amirul Haziq and Ikmal Dzariff, posted 1,969 over 216 arrows — forty points past the old SUKMA team record of 1,929, set by Sabah at Sarawak 2024. Johor were second on 1,955. Sabah themselves came third on 1,939.

That third-placed Sabah score deserves a moment. Aedan Chaw, Evan Rich Chong and Quik Chern Xin shot ten points better than the record their own state set two years ago — and finished off the podium of the qualification table for it. Quik Chern Xin was a member of that 2024 record team. He watched it fall twice in one afternoon, once to Pahang and once to himself.

In the women’s team, hosts Selangor took the record and the top seeding together. Amirah binti Amirullah, Nur Arissa Najlaa and Nur Ieka Hariesya combined for 1,880, beating Terengganu’s 1,836 from 2024 by forty-four. Wilayah Persekutuan on 1,862 and Kedah on 1,856 also cleared the old mark.

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Then the Brackets Happened

Qualification decides the seeding. It does not decide very much else, and the recurve eliminations at INSPEN made the point emphatically. Of the top four men’s seeds, three are already out. Of the top five women’s seeds, four have gone.

The men’s bottom half collapsed entirely. Sarawak’s Pok Hoe En, seeded nineteenth, worked through Aedan Chaw of Sabah, then Johor’s sixth seed Muhammad Akid Bazli, and then — in a shoot-off — third seed Quik Chern Xin, the man who had finished third in qualification. One arrow each: Pok Hoe En’s ten sat closer to centre.

In the same half, Selangor’s Muhammad Irfan Hilmi bin Mohd Kusyairi, seeded eighteenth, did something arguably better. He beat second seed Wan Qayyim Syahmi 7–3 in the last sixteen, then dismissed seventh seed Melvin Tieh 6–0 without dropping a set. Seeds eighteen and nineteen now meet for a place in the gold medal match — which means one of them is guaranteed to be shooting for gold on Thursday.

The Women’s Draw Went Further

If the men’s bracket was disorderly, the women’s was close to anarchic. Selangor’s fifth seed Nur Arissa Najlaa went out in her opening match, beaten 6–0 by Terengganu’s Nurul Syakirah. Fourth seed Jeslynn Kaur fell 6–2 to Wilayah Persekutuan teammate Arlia Nur Falisha in the last sixteen. Third seed Nur Auni Aqilah was beaten 7–3 in the quarterfinal by Terengganu’s Afya Najiha, seeded nineteenth.

And the second seed went in the tightest way available. Nur Ieka Hariesya — the archer who had lost top seeding by a count of tens that morning — tied Alia Qursyiah of Wilayah Persekutuan at five sets each, forced a shoot-off, and lost it ten to ten on the closer arrow. Two decisions in one day, both by the smallest margin the sport offers, both against her.

What Comes Next

The individual semifinals and finals are set for 20 August. The women shoot first — Joey Tan against Kelantan’s Emira Damia at 14:00, Afya Najiha against Alia Qursyiah at 14:30, with bronze at 15:00 and gold at 15:30. The men follow: Haiqal Danish faces Evan Rich Chong at 16:00, Pok Hoe En meets Muhammad Irfan Hilmi at 16:30, bronze at 17:00 and gold at 17:30.

The team events run to a separate schedule. Eliminations open on 19 August, with the men’s brackets from 09:15 and the women’s from 10:30. Both team finals are held over to 22 August — the women’s gold at 12:30, the men’s at 14:30.

Ten records have fallen in two days at INSPEN. But the brackets have already made clear that the record book and the medal table are separate documents. Three of the four men who shot best in qualification are watching the semifinals. Four of the top five women are doing the same. Whoever collects gold on Thursday will have earned it in the only round that counts.