IPOH, Sep 15 — Muhamad Qamarul Naim Abu Aziz used to travel hundreds of miles just to train shooting.

Today the 21-year-old from Tok Jiring, Terengganu broke the Malaysian Games (Sukma) record for the men’s 50m pistol event at the Darul Ridzuan Shooting Range here.

Muhamad Qamarul double the gold medal with 451 points, beating the previous Sukma record with a single point.

The previous record of 540 was held by Negri Sembilan’s Jasmi Mohamad Zin back in 2014 and before that Muhamad Muhaithir Johari in 2012.

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“I have participated in three Sukma since 2014, but I never won any medal for the individual event. The last I won a medal in Sukma was from the team’s event. We won bronze in men’s 50m pistol in Sarawak two years ago.

“This is my first gold medal and I didn’t expect that I would break the Sukma record,” he told reporters.

Muhamad Qamarul’s individual points had also helped Terengganu contingent to win the men’s team 50m pistol event.

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Muhamad Qamarul said he had to travel to Perlis or Pahang from Terengganu to practice shooting due to lack of shooting range facilities in the state.

“We face lots of obstacles in our training. We don’t have much facility in the state, so the entire shooting contingent has to travel to Perlis and Pahang to train.

“We usually train on the weekends and for Sukma this year, I only trained less than 10 times in a proper shooting range,” he said.

“The rest of the day, we train in the gym and sometime we will do test firings in the empty hall. The rhythm of shooting will be different when we train outside a shooting range,” he added.

The full time athlete, said that he first started to learn shooting when he was 15 years old.

“My school had selection for shooting when I was in form three. I braved myself and tried my luck and eventually I got selected. That’s how it started,” he said.

Muhamad Qamarul said his dream is to turn professional and represent the national team for the shooting event in the future.

He also added that the win today had boosted his confidence and he is aiming for a podium finish in the men’s 10m air rifle event on Monday.

Meanwhile, Wilayah Persekutuan’s Nur Izazi Rosli won the gold medal in the women’s 10m air rifle event with a total of 623.3 points.

Nur Izazi created a new record in women’s 10m air rifle as the 19th Sukma edition offers six series of shooting compared to the previous Sukma which only offers four series of shooting.

The national shooter, said that her experience in the recent Asian Games had helped her to win her first Sukma gold medal.

“I definitely got a lot of exposure from the Asian Games even though I did not win any medal there. I was also able to improve my shooting skills with the facilities provided by the National team,” she said.

Nur Izazi said that she dedicates her win to her parents and coach Park Sang Soong.