KUALA LUMPUR: Adnan Ahmad, who helped the national archery squad to four gold medals at the 2015 Singapore Sea Games, has been given the faith and trust once again to lead the compound archery squad at the Asian Games in Indonesia come August.
National Archery Association of Malaysia (NAAM) secretary-general, Datuk Abd Hamid Hassan said that they have proposed the coach who is now attached with Sultan Zainal Abidin University (Unisca) to the National Sports Council (NSC).
"In principle he (Adnan) has agreed and NSC will issue the offer letter after this,” he said.
At the Singapore Sea Games, Adnan helped the national compound archers march to the final in all five events, winning four gold medals and one silver before his position was filled by Muhammad Zaki Mahzan who in turn led the team to three golds, one silver and one bronze. Zaki however has taken the decision not to renew his contract with NSC and has instead signed a contract with the Kedah Archery Association.
Abd Hamid said three men’s archers -- Mohd Juwaidi Mazuki, Zulfadhli Ruslan and Lee Kin Lip along with a female compound archer -- Fatin Nurfatehah Mat Salleh however will undergo training in phases following their respective work commitments even though they have been offered the opportunity to train fulltime.
"They will come here before they take part in any championship or competition overseas, though at the same time they will be monitored by our coaches when they train,” he said.
He added that all the archers will be called up to take part in a centralised training camp for a month in Bukit Jalil before the Asian Games takes place.
"We are gearing towards such a move (to gather all the archers to train fulltime) in the future. The problem now is their respective commitments to their jobs because many of the national archers are working and no longer studying and they need to work to earn a living,” he added.
Before this, national archers only won one silver through the men’s team event at the previous Games in Incheon, South Korea three years ago. Now NAAM have set a higher target of one individual medal and team for the recurve and compound categories.