KUALA LUMPUR: Joseph Chai's dream of becoming a national shooter in five years' time may come true after he broke the national junior record in the boys' 10m air rifle in the third SportExcel-NSC-Milo-NSAM Championships at the Subang Shooting Range today.
The 20-year-old from Sarawak registered 621.9 points to erase the previous mark of 618.5 set by Haritz Iklil Hessly of Selangor in a SportsExcel meet in Kuching in 2019.
Joseph, who finished fourth in the first of the SportExcel meet at the same venue in March, shot 103.7, 104.6, 105.1, 102.6, 103.8 and 102.1.
Perak's Aiman Syafiq Zainal Ariffin (619.8) and Amar Syawal Abdul Mutalib (612.4) of Negri Sembilan settled for the silver and bronze respectively.
Joseph, whose previous best was 615.5, said: "I never expected to improve my personal score by more than six points to break the record.
"It's the best performance of my life since I took up the sport five years ago," said Joseph.
"I believe that I can progress further in air rifle to become a national shooter by 2027.
"I must continue to train hard to further improve my score and also win more medals at junior level.
"My mission this year is to finish on the podium in the Malaysia Games in September," said Joseph.
It was double delight for Joseph when he bagged a team silver in the SportsExcel and Tun Tan Siew Sin Trophy.
Both the meets, which were held concurrently for five days, ended today.
Joseph (621.9), together with Haziq Fadhil Khalid Fauzan (559.0) and Syafiq Asyraf Roslan (595.8), amassed a total of 1819.0.
In the girls' 50m rifle three position, the Negri Sembilan trio of Alia Husna Budruddin (1147), Aina Zahara Baharum (1128) and Gan Chen Jie (1121) with a total score of 3396, bettered their own national junior rcord by seven points. Their previous mark was 3389.