The development exercise is also intended to create a platform whereby talented juniors get to compete with existing shooters. NSAM believes that that is the way for the sport to go as freshies need systematic exposure and opportunities to improve their standards.

On taking over as president of NSAM in 1987, Ally Ong, himself a top-notch skeet shooter, has been devoting his energy to the never-ending search for new talents. Such was the pace of the transition that his teammates and peers in the seventies and eighties have been totally replaced by new faces.

The same scenario occurred in the pistol and rifle events where big timers such as Sabiamad Ahad and Major Jasni Shaari have made way for younger shooters.

Ally’s penchant for development proceeded systematically because he had capable lieutenants in the NSAM deputy president Chia Woh, who is in charge of the Training and Competitions Committee, NSAM adviser Ong Hoon Chin, NSAM chief coach Major Jasni, Abdul Mutlib and to some extent Felix Ho.

In turn, they are capably supported by a host of Russian coaches seconded from the National Sports Council.

Of course, there are affiliates who are keen in developing the sport as well. Kelantan, Perak, Sarawak, Johor, Penang, Kedah, Police and Armed Forces have been actively pursuing in this direction.

The grooming exercise was mapped out as early as 1980 when ex-president Tun Tan Siew Sin and his deputy Ally, outlined their development plans. They targeted the Police and Armed Forces as the two were uniformed personnel.

Ally observed that in the seventies and eighties, there were few young shooters from SSA. Those active SSA members were mainly shooting alongside the Army and Police shooters in competitions and very few of them, except for the skeet and trap shooters, made it internationally.

The need to prepare young shooters was made all the more pressing due to the staging of the Commonwealth Games in Malaysia in 1998 and the Asian Shooting Championships in 2000.

In this direction, the National Sports Council (NSC) assisted NSAM in development programmes for the young shooters, particularly in the Malaysia Games (SUKMA).

In 1994, the first ‘SUKMA’ was held in Perak, followed by Kuantan in 1996 and then by Selangor in 1998, Penang in 2000 and Sabah in 2002. Junior shooters from all the States including the Armed Forces and the Police are now competing in SUKMA.

NSAM stages an average of six shooting championships annually and to place further emphasis on development, NSAM made it mandatory in 1998 to hold junior championships in parallel with national-level competitions. As a result of this far-sighted move, juniors get to compete alongside their senior counterparts, hone their skills and temperament.

To further enhance the talents of young shooters, SSA, NSC, Sports Excel and MILO have been sponsoring two legs of the Junior Air Guns championships since 1999.
 

The shooting venue was in Langkawi, 540km off Kuala Lumpur. Despite the distance, NSAM still staged it immaculately. Indeed, it was also a showcase of NSAM’s organizational skills.

It was the first time that Malaysia had won a gold, thanks to the gallant effort of Air Rifle shooter Nurul Huda Baharin.

Despite a broken arm suffered in a motorcycle accident two weeks earlier, Nurul brought cheer to Malaysia by breaking the Games records, firing a 494.8 to erase the previous record of 488.7. She was later named Olympian of the year 1998 by the Olympic Council of Malaysia.

Both Bibiana Ng and Roslina Bakar came within a whisker of the gold in the Ladies Sport Pistol and Sport Rifle 3-Position respectively. They were leading in the preliminary rounds but stumbled in the finals. It was a case of so near yet so far.

Malaysia also collected two silver and three bronze medals from Abdul Mutalib Abdul Razak, Emran Zakaria along with Suriani Othman, Kamisah Abd. Jalal, Norsita Hj. Mahmud and Zainal Abidin Md. Zain.

Malaysia’s success in the shooting competitions were held in a modern venue LISRAM, built at a cost of RM80 million.

A record of 39 Commonwealth countries and 322 participants competed in the shooting competitions. They were; Australia, Bangladesh, Barbados, Bermuda, Brunei, Canada, Cyprus, England, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Guyana, India, Isle Of Man, Jamaica, Jersey, Kenya, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Namibia, New Zealand, Norfolk Island, Northern Ireland, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Scotland, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, St. Helena, Tanzania, Trinidad & Tobago, Turks and Caicos, Uganda, Wales and Zimbabwe.

The shooting competitions were successfully conducted and for the first time in the Commonwealth Games history, there was not a single protest from the participating nations.

NSAM’s success was due to the co-operation from a tireless executive committee, specially formed just for the Games, NSAM’s affiliates, Sukom, Kedah State government, Olympic Council of Malaysia, National Sports Council, Police and Armed Forces.

Chia Woh’s love affair with shooting started in 1959 when the Selangor Shooting Association had its office at Jalan Alor, Kuala Lumpur.

Chia Woh, who is the current NSAM deputy president, was an out-and-out administrator who rose from the rank and file. Strangely he was never a shooter. Until today, his fellow NSAM’s and SSA’s colleagues have been wondering how he could muster so much of energy and interest to devote 44 long years to shooting.

Cheng Wah’s love affair with shooting began in 1963. He started as a shooter cum hunter but never excelled at any. That prompted him to serve as a range officer before graduating to a Class A technical technical.

Despite four decades of faithful service, Cheng Wah said he has lost none of his enthusiasm although he might not be as fast and energetic as before. “I’m more than willing to serve NSAM and SSA if they still want me.”

Lee Huat started his career with SSA before moving on to NSAM in 1967. He was then an energetic twenty-something (but don’t ask for his age) whose passion was seeing paper target and numbers.

Not surprisingly he settled as NSAM’s classification official and until today, he is still serving as a Class A classification delegate and his devotion to the sport has not waned one bit.

His main passion these days is training young officials. He said the key to mastering classification is dedication and a willingness to learn.

Ally Ong’s sojourn with shooting began in 1970 when he showed his potential as a national junior skeet shooter. The following year he graduated to the senior rank and by 1973, he became the youngest Seap Games skeet gold medallist.

He became the deputy president of SSA and NSAM in 1975, before taking over the helm of the national body when Tun Tan Siew Sin passed away in 1987.

He retired from competitive shooting in 1989 to concentrate on running the SSA and NSAM.

Tan Sri Dato’ Dr Tan Lai Kim, a well-known property developer in Kuala Lumpur, started his fledging career with the SSA in 1970 and to-date has contributed 33 years of service to the sport.

He admitted to being a big-time game hunter and it was there that he developed an interest for shooting.

Since he never rose to the rank of a state or national shooter, he thought he could better serve the sport by being a vice-president of SSA.

Chu Pu Yam was a gangling manager of a gun shop in Kuala Lumpur in the sixties and it was through his regular dealings with SSA’s shooters that he got bitten by the shooting bug.

He became a member of SSA in 1971 and since then he has served in various capacities as a committee member of SSA and NSAM. He is now the club manager of the Subang Shooting Range.

Ong Hoon Chin was involved in managing Police shooting competitions in 1972 and since Police was one of the most active affiliates of the NSAM, he naturally got into the national body as one of its technical officials.

For the greater part of his 31 years of contribution to shooting, Hoon Chin concentrated on running state, national and international championships. After his retirement from Police, Hoon Chin continued to serve shooting by joining SSA.

His most memorable achievement came in 1984 when he was selected by UIT as a technical delegate for the Los Angeles Olympics.

Dato’ J.J. Raj was at one time a chief police officer of Selangor and like Hoon Chin, his involvement with shooting occurred naturally armed uniform-officer. In fact, he is one of the most knowledgeable figures of shooting sport in Malaysia.

He has contributed 28 years of invaluable service to shooting and Dato’ Raj doesn’t seem to be losing his appetite for the sport.

He is now the NSAM secretary for international affairs besides being the secretary general of SEASA, an executive committee member of the ASC and also the Asian Clay shooting Federation.

Fittingly these long-serving eight are known as the golden pillars of NSAM and SSA and the best thing for shooting is that shooters can count on their experience and vast knowledge for sound guidance.