Youth Olympic Shooting: Wu Wenyi fails to fire his way into final of 10m Pistol

Story by Koh Yizhe/Red Sports

Singapore Sports School, Tuesday, August 24, 2010 — Singapore’s Wu Wen Yi finished a disappointing 18th in a field of 20 shooters after accumulating a final score of 546 in the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) 10-metre Air Pistol Men’s Junior competition.

The Singaporean was seen shedding tears after his detail when he failed to better his personal best of 564. Shooters go through six series, taking 10 shots per series for a total of 60 shots. 10 points are the maximum a shooter can get and the top eight shooters qualify for the final.

17-year-old Wen Yi looked nervous in the opening three series, registering an 89, 90 and 89 in the first three series respectively. The pressure of shooting in such a major competition seemed to have got to him as he hit a seven in each series.

He finally got his act together in the fourth series. In it, he hit two consecutive 10s on his third and fourth shots. He only managed a couple of nines in his subsequent shots but he nailed another 10 on his seventh shot and eventually ended the fourth with a 94.

He managed to continue with his form in the fifth series, getting another 94. He started it with three nines, but on his seventh, eighth and ninth shots, he got three 10s. In this last series, however, he failed to continue his run, and only managed a 90 with his last two shots hitting eights.

“Very disappointed,” said Wen Yi after he had some time to cool down. “I didn’t perform up to standard and it wasn’t my normal performance especially in the second and third series. Midway through, I was nervous and I thought a bit too much. I was representing Singapore and I didn’t want to let Singapore down and it did affect me.”

“I just wanted to beat my own PB. I know I couldn’t beat them but I just wanted to care about my own scorecard,” added the 17-year-old, who is waiting for National Service. “But now I feel like I let Singapore down.”

“The result was a bit unexpected,” said coach Wu Jiang. “But he has less than a year of training and he was very stressed. Today, he was too stressed, but he does have the potential to go far.”

“He didn’t shoot to his normal standard, but I guess he was under a lot of pressure,” said Lim Ziying, a shooter from Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Secondary. “At least he didn’t come in last!”

“Although the Singapore shooter didn’t get a good position, I’m sure he has done his best,” said Mardhiany Junadi, also from Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Secondary. “Athletes in Singapore must concentrate on both studies and sports but other countries offer sports scholarships and stuff like that. So maybe he (Wen Yi) did not get much training like the other top shooters in the competition.”

Singapore will compete in shooting again on Wednesday, August 25th through Carol Lee at the Singapore Sports School at 9am. Carol will be shooting in the 10m Air Rifle Women Junior Qualifiers.

For Singapore fixtures and results, go to our 2010 YOG fixtures page