KUCHING: Gan Chen Jie's decision to shift her focus from the swimming pool to the shooting range has clearly paid dividends at the Sarawak Malaysia Games (Sukma).
The Negri Sembilan lass won another two gold medals at the games today after emerging victorious in the women's 50 metre rifle individual and team events at the Petra Jaya Shooting Range.
The 20-year-old scored 592 points to claim the individual gold ahead of teammate Aina Zahara Baharum (585) and Sarawak's Kaira Ramadhani Azman (581) who settled for silver and bronze respectively.
Chen Jie said she previously wanted to follow in the footsteps of her sisters Gan Hua wei and Gan Zhen Yu who represented Malaysia in synchronised swimming during the 2015 Singapore Sea Games.
"I tried synchronised swimming first because I wanted to be like my sisters and later in 2018 tried fencing before moving on to shooting," said Chen Jie.
"I decided not to continue in synchronised swimming as Malaysia no longer sends representatives to international competitions.
"I saw that shooting has a bright future and believe that I can go far in the sport if I remain consistent."
Chen Jie, Aina and Nuraisyah Suraya Mohammad Radzi's combined score of 1,750 won Negri the women's 50m rifle team gold.
Perak (Nurul Ain Murad, Nazzatul Anis Azizi, Nur Afni Athirah Mohd Ariff) took silver on 1,713 while Penang (Nur Sumayyah Dzulkifli, Siti Zulaika Haira Rosman, Tan Ying Ying) won the bronze with 1,706.
Chen Jie, who is also in the national shooting backup squad, is a part-time swimming teacher.
"I usually teach children how to swim in Bukit Jalil when I am not busy training," she said.
Chen Jie had earlier this week won the 50m rifle three-positions individual and team event gold medals.