The sole Malaysian to make the last 16 stage, Khairul will be up against Britain's Larry Godfrey and a partisan crowd but his motivation will be to, if not better, match Cheng Chu Sian's quarter-final appearance in Beijing four years ago.

The archers were touted as potential medallists for Malaysia in London but performed poorly in the team event and were unlucky when Khairul was drawn against Chu Sian in the first round of the individual.

"I know the crowd will be behind Godfrey but I don't think that will affect me," said Khairul on Tuesday.

"What is important is for me to keep my concentration and perform as I did in the first and second rounds. I want to advance as far as possible and it will be good if I can do better than Chu Sian's quarter-final appearance."

The medals will be decided today and the nation can only wait in hope that Khairul is among them.

Meanwhile, no national record, and just one race is what Khoo Cai Lin will take back from the London Olympics after flopping at the Aquatic Centre yesterday.

Cai Lin, only in London as a wild card, clocked 8:51.18s to finish sixth in Heat 2, which was way off her own national record of 8:45.36s set in the 2009 Laos Sea Games and the swimmer will return disappointed for not using her participation in the Olympics to improve her time.

Sailor Khairulnizam Mohd Affendy, though, fared better in Wednesday's stages 5 and 6 as he improved from 47th to 44th.

Khairulnizam, who had a rest day yesterday, is 4:23s behind leader Tonci Stipanovic of Croatia and has four more races before his campaign ends tomorrow.