Near misses help Singapore shooter Teh Xiu Hong qualify for Paris Olympics

SINGAPORE – After some agonising near misses, Singaporean shooter Teh Xiu Hong has qualified for her maiden Olympics without firing a single shot.

On June 14, the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) confirmed her spot through the qualification rankings. At world No. 17, she is the highest-ranked women’s 25m pistol athlete who has not qualified and is from a national Olympic committee which does not have more than one berth in the event.

In 2024, Teh stepped up her campaign to win an Olympic quota for Singapore. But she missed out by one spot at the Asian Rifle and Pistol Championships in Indonesia in January, and again by two places at the ISSF Final Olympic Qualification Championship in Brazil three months later.

She is currently in Xiamen, China for a short break and received the confirmation via e-mail on June 14.

The 30-year-old told The Straits Times: “I received the official e-mail this morning and I was surprised to see it since I didn’t have any expectations. All I know is that I have done my best for the competitions and that’s enough for me.

“We try not to get hung up on the results. So when I missed out on qualifying, my coach and I will try to find out what I can improve on for the next competition.”

Nevertheless, she found the qualifying campaign “an incredibly challenging journey” and thanked the Singapore Shooting Association (SSA), coach Lee Do-hee, the spexScholarship programme and sports psychologist Harry Lim for their “invaluable support”, particularly in maintaining her mental well-being.

She said: “They all played a crucial role in helping me secure this quota. I faced many setbacks and disappointments, but I kept pushing forward.”

Ultimately, her efforts paid off as the ranking points accumulated from those competitions allowed her to overtake several contenders – including compatriot and 2016 Olympian Teo Shun Xie – to punch her ticket to Paris.

Emboldened by this, Teh wants to be the first Singaporean shooter to win an Olympic medal.

National pistol coach Lee, a South Korean who has worked with Olympic champion Kim Jang-mi and several World Cup medallists, credited Teh for her positivity and mentality.

Having worked with her over two stints in 2019-20 and from 2023, she told ST: “Xiu Hong is a positive individual who is willing to take on challenging training so that I could bring out her strengths.

“The mental game is one of the important parts of shooting and I believe the strong trust and connection between the athlete and the coach is important. These factors have contributed to her rapid growth and improvement in a short period of time.

“One of her technical skills is her excellent trigger control. If she gains more experience and learns to alleviate competition anxiety, she has the potential to further excel as an athlete.”

Teh’s qualification means that Singapore shooting will continue its tradition of being represented at every Olympics since Seoul 1988.

SSA president Michael Vaz expressed confidence that the streak would not be broken.

Vaz, who is pushing for an eight-lane finals range to be built here, said: “We have had to fight for ranking points instead of a quota for the Olympics through finals events as we don’t have a finals range to practise for that. The finals events that produce medals are a different format and we have been faring badly in these.

“Without a finals range, we have to beg and borrow from our neighbours Indonesia, South Korea and Chinese Taipei and rely on the goodwill of competition hosts to let us go early to practise in their finals range.”

Besides Teh, 20 other Singaporean athletes have booked their Paris 2024 spots.

They are Shanti Pereira (athletics); Loh Kean Yew, Yeo Jia Min, Terry Hee and Jessica Tan (badminton); Stephenie Chen (canoeing); Caroline Chew (equestrian); Amita Berthier and Kiria Tikanah (fencing); Saiyidah Aisyah (rowing); Maximilian Maeder and Ryan Lo (sailing); Jonathan Tan, Quah Ting Wen, Quah Jing Wen, Letitia Sim and Levenia Sim (swimming); Izaac Quek, Zeng Jian and Zhou Jingyi (table tennis).