Malaysian archery puts eyes on a first ever Olympic medal at the Beijing Games following the good performances by their men's recurve team in the last two years.
Malaysian team arrived in Beijing on Sunday, who will bank on SEA Games gold medallist Chu Sian, Mohd Marbawi Sulaiman and Wan Khalmizam Wan Abdul Aziz to nail the first medal for the country in Olympic archery.
The trio have raised a hope for a medal following good performances in international tournaments over the years.
Their latest exploits were in the third leg of the World Cup in Turkey in June -- winning the silver medal, a first for Malaysia in the series.
Although honored to represent Malaysia at the Beijing Games, the 22-year-old Chu Sian said that the team had kept it low key in their preparation at Bukit Jalil.
"There has been a lot of focus on us but we have been cool about it. We did not do anything special as part of preparation for the Games. We kept mostly to our normal routines," said Chu Sian, before leaving for Beijing on Sunday, as the Malaysia Star was quoted as saying.
"The Olympics are big but we try to treat it as just another event. It helps deflect the pressure. We did not want to make it hard on ourselves by doing something different or getting into the hype of things. We hang out just how it was before."
Chu Sian said on Monday that the standard of archery among the men's teams was quite even.
"Everyone knows that South Korea are the heavy favorites in the women's event. But it could be anyone's game for the men. There is always a new winner in the individual event from different countries. That is how close it is in the men's competition," said he.
Among their rivals are the teams from the United States, Australia, Italy, South Korea and China.