BSS, Dhaka :
Local Archery fans are keeping their fingers crossed hoping that overwhelming success in the 3rd South Asian Archery Championships in March should inspire Bangladeshi archers to assert their dominance once again in the upcoming 2nd ISSF Islamic Solidarity Archery Championships beginning at the Moulana Bhasani Hockey Stadium today (Sunday).
State Minister for Youth and Sports Dr Biren Sikder MP is expected to inaugurate the meet as the chief guest.
Islamic Solidarity Sports Federation Secretary General Mohammed SM Algarnas and Bangladesh Olympic Association’s Secretary General Syed Shahed Reza will also present in the inauguration ceremony.
In this regards, a press conference was held on Saturday at BOA auditorium to provide all the details of the meet. Islamic Solidarity Sports Federation Secretary General Mohammed SM Algarnas, technical official championship Ashraf Sayed Abdellatif Dahroug, technical delegate Saad Ahmed Al Mashhadani.
Bangladesh Archery Federation(BAF) President Lieu-tenant General (retd.) M Moinul Islam, BAF general secretary Kazi Rajib Uddin Ahmed Chapal, were among others, also present on the occasion.
There will be immense pressure on the local archers after their performance for them to repeat feat of winning six gold medals out of the 10 they grabbed in the first edition of the ISSF Islamic Archery Championships.
But now a-day expectations are high and those results will be compared with points of events such as the Asian Archery Championships, World Cup or Olympics? The answer probably lies not in the number of medals they win but rather the accuracy the archers can achieve in qualification and elimination rounds.
The archers have been training under German coach Martin Frederick since late February, after the Bangladesh Archery Federation appointed the 50-year-old coach for five years, with a target of winning at least a medal in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
The scores of most of these archers were far less than those of top Asian archers, most of whom are dominating world archery. Roman Sana, Ibrahim Sheikh, promising archers Tamimul Islam and Hakim Ahmed Rubel will face strong opposition from the others countries.
In the women’s recurve event, Nasrin Akter, Radia Akter Shapla (572), Rabeya Khatun (570) and Beauty Roy (552) are still long way behind Korea’s Choi Minseon, Lee Eun Gyeong and Ki Bo Bae hit the top three scorers — 684, 677 and 673 points respectively in the qualification round and their performance will be seriously monitored in this meet.
“Perfection is the key in archery. If an archer can make good scores in qualification rounds by hitting a bulls eye the maximum number of times (maximum 10 point per shot), he/she has good opportunity of producing good results in the elimination round and winning medals,” Bangladesh archery team’s assistant coach said, Ziaur Rahman.
Participating countries: Azerbaijan, Chad, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Nepal, Morocco, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkey, UAE, Uganda, Mauritania, Djibouti, Pakistan, Estonia and host Bangladesh.
