UNB, Guwahati :
Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA) will try to include the 12th SA Gold winning swimmer Mahfuza Khatun Shila in the Bangladesh contingent for the upcoming Olympic Games scheduled for Rio (Brazil) in August next.
Talking to UNB in Guwahati on Sunday, Chef De Mission of Bangladesh contingent and Deputy Secretary General of BOA Ashiqur Rahman Miku said, “Mahfuza Khatun made brilliant results in the ongoing South Asian Games and she deserves the right to represent Bangladesh in the upcoming Rio Olympics.”
“I assure you that we’re very cordial to include her in the Bangladesh Olympic squad, but we’ve to go through some limitations, finally,” Miku continued.
“As per the instruction of the IOC, we have initially decided to send one athlete each from four disciplines-Shooting, Archery, Boxing and Weightlifting-in the Rio Olympics and training is also going on accordingly,” he said.
The BOA Deputy Secretary General said he shared the matter with BOA Secretary General Shaheed. “We’re considering the matter giving top importance. I think we’ll be able to take a positive decision in the next meeting.”
Replying to a question about Bangladesh’s performance in the ongoing SA Games, Miku, who is also the chairman of BOA Training and Development Committee, said, “I’m satisfied with winning four gold medals till the date, but we’ll face frustrating result in future if we fail to hunt talent from grassroots level throughout the year and groom them with long term training and arranging regular competitions like cricket.”
Most celebrated cricketers came from district level-Tamim from Chittagong, Shakib from Magura, Mahmudullah from Mymensingh, Mushfiq from Bogra and current bowling sensation Mustafiqur Rahman from Satkhira. “So we’ve to arrange talent hunt programmes at grassroots level to find our future athletes,” Miku observed.
He informed that the Finance Ministry allocated Tk 15 crore for BOA, which will be distributed among prospective federations very soon, and they recommend giving 20 percent of the fund among different district sports associations.
Regarding non-participation of Basketball teams in SA Games, Miku said following a threat of suspension issued by Basketball’s World body FIBA, no teams participated in the SA Games Basketball event although all of the teams were in Guwahati, including Bangladesh. The situation arose when Indian Olympic Committee sent a team to SA Games ignoring Indian Basketball Federation, which later lodged a complaint with FIBA.
The BOA leader also informed that Nepal has a bright chance to be the host of the next SA Games, although Bhutan showed their interest. However, it will be finalised in the upcoming SA Games meeting here on February 15 with the participation of eight SA countries.
