SINGAPORE: “Burger! Burger! Burger!” It was the calls for burger that helped shooter Alia Sazana Azahari end Malaysia’s gold drought on the sixth day of the shooting competition which started last week.
Her team-mates’ vocal support kept Alia on track to win the women’s 25m pistol gold event at the National Shooting Centre.
The 23-year-old Alia went through two nerve-racking shoot-outs in the semi-finals before routing host Singapore's Teh Xiu Hong 7-1 in the final.
The bubbly Alia, who had made a burger wager with her good friend, Thai shooter Tanyaporn Prucksakorn, said the cheer of “burger” calmed her nerves.
In addition to the burger wager, the Terengganu local had also promised her team-mates that she would buy them all burgers if she won the gold medal.
"I was moved by the support from my team-mates and the cheer of ‘burger’ lightened the pressure," said Alia.
"It was a tough fight for me to win the medal and there was pressure to win the gold. I had to dig deep before qualifying for the final but it paid off with the gold medal.
"As for the burger treat from Tanyaporn, I have yet to decide on where to have it ... it’s the same with my team-mates. We’ll decide on it soon.”
Malaysia could only muster five silver and five bronze medals before Alia gunned down the gold.
Tanyaporn said she's happy for her good friend’s success and is ready to keep her end of the bet.
Meanwhile, in the men's 50m pistol event, Johnathan Wong won the bronze medal with a score of 165.3 points.
Vietnam's Hoang Xuan Vinh shot down the gold with a score of 190.9 points to edge Thailand's Natphanlert Auapinyakul, who claimed the silver with 186 points.
The Star Online
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