Khairul, who made his Olympic debut in London last year, will compete in his second SEA Games when he toes the line in Myanmar. He made his first debut in the Indonesia SEA Games two years ago.
“The SEA Games is still competitive to me even though I have participated at the highest level – the Olympics.
“And there’s no way I’m going to write off any of the competitors in Myanmar because you never know what will happen on competition day,” said the world No. 9 archer.
Khairul made a golden debut in the Indonesia SEA Games in Jakarta, helping the team to the gold medal alongside the now-retired Cheng Chu Sian and Haziq Kamaruddin.
He also won a silver medal in the individual event, losing out to Chu Sian.
In Myanmar, Atiq Bazil Bakri was roped in for Chu Sian and coach Lee Jae-hyung is expecting them to defend the team gold medal as well as the individual title.
“We have to respect the other archers (in Myanmar) although we may be strong on paper. Just because we don’t see a lot of them in other international tournaments, it doesn’t mean they are weak,” said Khairul.
