Two Matches, Two Single Points Fatin Nurfatehah Reaches the Quarterfinal

On Sunday Malaysia lost three team matches by a single arrow or a single point. On Monday, in the compound individual eliminations, Fatin Nurfatehah Mat Salleh won two matches by exactly one point each — and became the first Malaysian archer to reach a quarterfinal at these Games.

It was not a clean day otherwise. Mohd Juwaidi Mazuki and Alang Ariff Aqil Muhammad Ghazalli both won their opening matches and both went out in the round of sixteen, each beaten by a Korean. Iman Aisyah Norazam tied her first match at 145 and lost the shoot-off by a single ring. Of the four Malaysian compound archers who started Monday, one is still shooting.

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Fatin Nurfatehah: 144–143, Then 147–146

Seeded eleventh, Fatin Nurfatehah opened against Amna Alawadhi of the UAE and shot 144 to the Emirati's 143. The scorecard says she was behind after two ends and level after four; a 28 in the final end to Alawadhi's 28 was enough because of what she had built at the start.

The round of sixteen was the real test. Kanoknapus Kaewchomphu of Thailand had qualified sixth on 701, one point clear of Fatin Nurfatehah's 700, and the pair matched each other almost arrow for arrow. Both opened 30 and 30. Both shot 29 in the third. Both closed on 28. The whole match turned on the fourth end, where Fatin Nurfatehah found 30 to the Thai's 29.

Two matches, two one-point wins, ten ends of which eight were drawn. It is the most precise shooting any Malaysian has produced at these Games, and it has put her into the last eight.

The Quarterfinal: Park Jungyoon

Her reward is Park Jungyoon of Korea, seeded third, on Thursday morning at 09:34 local time. Park qualified on 702 and came through the round of sixteen by beating Chinese Taipei's Chen Fang Yi 148–147 — the same Chen Fang Yi who had eliminated Iman Aisyah Norazam an hour earlier.

Park has shot 148 in both her matches so far. Fatin Nurfatehah's best on Monday was 147. If the quarterfinal follows the pattern of her first two, it will again come down to a single end.

Iman Aisyah: Level at 145, Beaten on the Shoot-Off

Iman Aisyah Norazam, nineteenth seed and at her first Asian Games, shot five consecutive 29s against fourteenth-seeded Chen Fang Yi. It produced 145 and a tie. The Chinese Taipei archer, who had gone 29, 30, 27, 30, 29, matched her exactly.

The shoot-off went 10 to Chen Fang Yi and 9 to Iman Aisyah. It is the fourth time in two days that a Malaysian entry has been eliminated by the smallest margin the sport recognises.

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Compound Men: Both Beaten by Korea

Mohd Juwaidi Mazuki opened in the manner his ninth seeding suggested, taking apart Japan's Naoki Komoto 149–145 with a card of 30, 30, 30, 29, 30. It was the highest score any Malaysian shot on Monday.

The round of sixteen brought Kim Jongho of Korea, seeded eighth, and a tighter contest. Juwaidi dropped a 28 in the second end and again in the fifth; Kim shot three consecutive 30s through the middle of the match and won 147–145.

Alang Ariff Aqil Muhammad Ghazalli, seeded fourteenth, produced the better result of the two openers. He met Vietnam's Nguyen Van Day, seeded nineteenth, and won 148–147 — another one-point margin, this one going Malaysia's way. His reward was Choi Yonghee, the third seed and another Korean, who shot 149 to end it 149–145.

Both Malaysians were therefore eliminated in the round of sixteen, both by Korea, and Korea has since put both of those archers into the quarterfinals. Kim Jongho meets China's Liao Jiahao; Choi Yonghee meets Vietnam's Dang Cong Duc.

Where It Stands

Three days into the archery programme, Malaysia has one archer left in the compound events and four still to shoot in the recurve individual, which began on Tuesday morning. The team programme is gone. The compound men's campaign is gone.

What remains is Fatin Nurfatehah Mat Salleh, in a quarterfinal, against the third seed, on Thursday morning. She set a national record with her teammates on Saturday, lost a mixed team match on a shoot-off on Sunday, and won two matches by one point on Monday. She is, by some distance, the story of Malaysia's Games so far.