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Published on November 28, 2007

Protests marred the opening day of the 24th SEA Games shooting competition at the Hua Mark Shooting Range, even as home shooters had a dismal start to their campaign, settling for second place in three out of the four events yesterday.

The Games are due to take place in Nakhon Ratchasima between December 6 and 15 but the shooting events are being held outside the actual schedule in order to avoid the clash of dates with the Asian Shooting Championships in Kuwait - the qualifying tournament for the Beijing Olympics - to be held from December 3 and 13.

Heading into the first day with high hopes, the hosts, who have had decent exploits in shooting, were denied the glory as neighbouring countries, Burma in particular, enjoyed rare moments in the limelight.

Thailand's best prospects lay in the women's 50m rifle prone team, which comprised two Doha Asian Games-winning shooters, Thanyalak Chotphi-bunsin and Paramaporn Ponglaokham. They were, however, upstaged by Malaysia who rode on the excellent form

of Mohd Nur Suryani, a member of the team that won the event in the Philippines two years ago.

Having been a revelation in Qatar, where she won a gold and silver on her international debut, teenager Thanyalak had the lofty weight of expectation on her shoulders. Thanyalak's nerves were obvious in the initial stages, with the disappointing scores providing evidence.

However, she gradually found her rhythm before registering a score of 583 that was enough to hand the silver medal to the Thai team.

Despite failing to make her mark on home soil, the 17-year-old Thanyalak was satisfied with the outcome.

"I felt nervous at the start as people had high expectations of me. I struggled to keep my focus. However, I'm content with my overall performance as the score I made was nearly as good as what I achieved in training," said the native of Chiang Mai.

Burma's Than Than Saw took a honour of claiming the Games' first gold medal by winning the event.

It proved third-time lucky for the Burmese who failed to capture the gold medal in her two previous attempts.

Saw, who was tied with Malaysia's Suryani at 587, raised her standard in the last series. "I'm very happy with the result. I'm also quite surprised that I managed to beat both Thailand and Malaysia, whom I thought had the best chance to win," said the 30-year-old Saw.

The Thai team's fortunes did not improve in the women's 25m pistol competition as their shooters played second fiddle to Vietnam, who made a clean sweep in both individual and team categories.

There was an air of expectancy surrounding the Thai camp after Thanyaporn Prucksakorn was second best in the qualifying round, one point off Vietnam's Nguyen Thu-van.

However, Thanya-porn's form in the final took a nosedive as

she registered only 192.3 points, the lowest among the eight finalists.

Given her remarkable score in the qualifier, she scraped through to clinch the silver medal.

"I was a bit excited. The pressure got the better of me in the final as I desperately wanted to win my first gold medal in the Games' individual event. I'm gutted that I failed again. However, the silver is something I could live with," said 17-year-old Thanyaporn.

An unexpected medal for the Thais came in the form of 19-year-old Waranya Butcha, who following her sensational form in the final took the bronze.

Nguyen Thu-van not only captured the gold in the individual event she also helped relegate the hosts to the second spot in the team event.

Meanwhile, Thai, Singaporean and Philippine shooters launched protests against eventual winners Vietnam in the men's team air pistol event, claiming that one of the Vietnamese shooter fired more than one shot, which resulted in their team's victory.

The protests lasted for more than four hours, resulting in the postponement of the men's individual air pistol. A decision on the outcome of the protests is expected this morning.

Kitinan Sanguansak

 Somporn Suphop

 The Nation