Junior athletics from tomorrow
The 33rd National Junior Athletics Championships get underway from tomorrow at the Bangabandhu National Stadium, with some 600 boys and girls expected to participate in the two-day meet.
Boys and girls from under-17 and under-19 age groups from 64 districts, divisions, educational boards and BKSP will be competing in 33 events, which will be held without an electronic timer.
After the 2010 SA Games, the Bangladesh Athletics Federation (BHF) held only a couple of national meets with the newly-installed electronic timer before it was removed ahead of the 2011 ICC World Cup. Since then the facilities have been devoid of the electronic devices, compelling the BAF to hold national meets with hand timers.
The BAF officials claimed the National Sports Council (NSC) has not responded to their repeated appeals to repair the electronic timers. One of the NSC officials, however, declined to comment on the issue as he felt he needed to go through documents to check the validity of the claim.
Meanwhile, the BAF is considering this junior meet as a stage for talent hunting.
“We are arranging the junior championships to hunt talents because we want to pick some 30 to 40 athletes apart from the BKSP ones for long-term training,” BAF president ASM Ali Kabir said at a press conference yesterday.
The federation and its officials will bear the expenditure of the meet as the federation turned down an offer from sponsors, who wanted to nominate the guests for the opening and closing ceremonies.
The BAF president also informed that they are planning to bring International Association of Athletics Federations' (IAAF) vice-president and Ukrainian pole vault legend Sergei Bubka in December during the National Athletic Championships. IAAF president Sebastian Coe is also expected to visit Bangladesh in 2019 after visiting Nepal during the South Asian Games, Ali added.
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