Photos by Stefanus Ian/Team Singapore. Story by Matthew Mohan/Team Singapore.
Nur Syahidah bte Alim cruised to her second consecutive gold medal in the Individual Compound Open, triumphing over Malaysia’s Nor Sa’adah Abdul Wahab 140-132. (Photo 1 © Stefanus Ian/Team Singapore)
KL Sports City, Thursday, September 21, 2017 — Team Singapore’s Nur Syahidah Alim may have retained her gold medal in the women’s individual compound open final at the ASEAN Para Games on Thursday but she has loftier goals in mind as she hopes to inspire more to pick up the sport.
She beat Malaysia’s Nor Sa’adah Abdul Wahab 140-132 to claim the victory.
“It’s really an awesome experience to be able to not only represent Singapore in archery for my second ASEAN Para Games but also to defend my gold,'” said Syahidah.
“The feeling is unreal. I feel that all my hard work and training with my coach and the rest of the team paid off.”
Syahidah started the final well, scoring a perfect 30 in her first end. That set the tone for the rest of the contest, as she never relinquished her lead over the Malaysian.
While Syahidah was going into the final as the defending champion, she was not taking anything for granted.
“Archery is anybody’s game because you have a lot of external factors and there’s always the mental state of mind so archery is anyone’s game,” she said.
The 32-year-old, who also made it to the quarterfinals at the 2016 Rio Paralympics, hopes her performance will continue to motivate younger Singaporeans to pick up the sport.
“There were parents before who came up to me, sometimes face-to-face and other times through Facebook. They send messages that say ‘You’ve inspired me as a parent and also my child to pick up the sport.’
“I never saw myself as inspirational before. I just love doing what I do,” she said.
“Getting to hear from parents that their child is inspired to do sport, really makes a difference to what I do now.
“It’s a great motivating factor for me to continue to work even harder. Any time where I feel down I always remember why I started doing it and it goes back to reality and I push myself even harder.”
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