A National Record by One Point as Malaysia Opens in Aichi-Nagoya

Malaysia's archers opened their 20th Asian Games campaign on Saturday with a national record, two scores of 700 and a reminder of exactly how thin the air is at this level. The compound women's team of Aina Syazwana Abdul Muhaimin, Fatin Nurfatehah Mat Salleh and Iman Aisyah Norazam posted 2,076 over 216 arrows — one point better than the 2,075 the same programme set at the Asia Cup in Bangkok in March, and now the ratified national mark.

It was the day's clear Malaysian highlight. It also placed them eighth. At an Asian Games where China, India and Korea all shot 2,096 or better in the same event, a national record and a quarter-final seeding arrived in the same breath.

---

The Record: 2,076, and a One-Point Margin

The new mark is the second time this year the compound women's team record has moved, and both entries belong to broadly the same group. In Bangkok on 23 March, Fatin Nurfatehah, Ng Sui Kim and Aina Syazwana shot 2,075. On Saturday in Aichi-Nagoya, with Iman Aisyah Norazam in for Ng Sui Kim, the trio went one better.

Fatin Nurfatehah led the Malaysian effort with 700 — 349 and 351 across the two distances — for eleventh place individually. It is four short of her own national record of 704, set at the Hyundai Archery World Cup in Paris in 2023, and it put her within five points of the top of a qualification table headed by India's Chikitha Taniparthi on 705.

Iman Aisyah Norazam qualified nineteenth on 693 in what is her first Asian Games. Aina Syazwana Abdul Muhaimin, entered for the team event only, shot 683.

Compound Men: Juwaidi Ninth, Team Sixth

Mohd Juwaidi Mazuki was Malaysia's best-placed archer of the day, finishing ninth in the compound men's individual on 706. Eight points separated him from the joint leaders, China's Liao Jiahao and Liu Jinyi, who both shot 712 — and eight points is also exactly what separates Saturday's score from Juwaidi's own national record of 714, set at the World Cup in 2023.

Alang Ariff Aqil Muhammad Ghazalli qualified fourteenth on 703. Muhammad Aiman Syafiq Mohd Tariki, shooting in the team event only, added 698 — a score that would have placed him twenty-eighth had he been entered individually.

Together they produced 2,107 for sixth in the compound men's team

In the compound mixed team, Fatin Nurfatehah and Mohd Juwaidi shot 1,406 and were placed seventh — level on score with Chinese Taipei and separated only by a coin toss, with India, China and Korea all within eight points ahead of them.

Recurve: A Harder Room

The recurve results made for sterner reading. Evan Rich Chong Qi Wei was the highest-placed Malaysian in the men's event, nineteenth on 672 — twenty-six points off India's Dhiraj Bommadevara, who set an Asian Games record of 698 at the top of the table. Quik Chern Xin qualified thirty-first on 649, and Muhammad Haiqal Danish Syamsul Affandi, entered for the team only, shot 646.

That gave Malaysia 1,967 and thirteenth of seventeen in the recurve men's team, where Korea's 2,064 set the standard. The national record of 2,016, set in 2019, was not troubled.

In the women's event, Ariana Nur Diana Mohamad Zairi finished twentieth on 643. Joey Tan Xing Lei, the SUKMA record-holder who took recurve women's qualification gold in Kajang last month, found Aichi-Nagoya a different proposition and qualified twenty-eighth on 619. Ku Nurin Afiqah Ku Ruzaini shot 606 in the team event.

Malaysia's 1,868 placed them twelfth of fifteen in the recurve women's team. In the recurve mixed team, Ariana Nur Diana and Evan Rich Chong were thirteenth on 1,315.

What It Sets Up

Seeding is what qualification buys, and Malaysia's is mixed. The compound women's team enters the bracket eighth, the compound men's sixth, and the compound mixed seventh — all inside the draw, all facing a top seed within two rounds. The recurve squads are seeded low enough that their opening matches will be against teams that outshot them by fifty points or more.

The compound programme has given itself something to work with. Fatin Nurfatehah's 700 and Juwaidi's 706 are both within a handful of points of their personal bests at a Games where a handful of points is the whole competition.