Golden pair make history
A day after Rabbi Hasan Munna's silver medal exploit, Bangladesh's ace shooter Abdullahel Baki and Syeda Atkiya Hasan Disha brought the first gold medal from the 4th Islamic Solidarity Games in shooting's 10m air rifle team event in Baku, Azerbaijan yesterday.
The shooting pair comprehensively beat their Iranian counterparts in the final shootout 5-1 to bring Bangladesh its first ever gold medal from the Games. Bangladesh's previous best achievement from these games was a silver medal in archery and a bronze medal in taekwondo, which came in the previous edition in Indonesia in 2013.
Having qualified in third position for the eight team final round with a score of 516.8 points, the Bangladeshi pair made it through to the gold medal match against Iranian pair of Najmeh Khedmati and Pourya Norouziyan, who had topped the charts in qualifying.
While Bangladesh's other pair, Munna and Mahfuza Jannat Jui, could only finish sixth in the event, Baki and Disha went on to win gold, beating their Iranian counterparts with ease. Turkey went on to win the bronze medal after beating another Iranian pair.
Baki, the 2014 Commonwealth Games silver medallist, said he was relieved to have won an international medal after a long while.
"I have participated in a number of international events in the last three to four years, but didn't win a gold medal. The last time I won a silver medal in team event in the South Asian Games. But our coach told me not to lose heart and I tried to keep my confidence going. That has paid off today," Baki said after winning the team gold.
"The feeling of winning a gold medal is special. I hope this medal will prove to be a turning point in my career. Now my target is to earn a quota place for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics," Baki added.
Baki had, on the previous day, finished sixth in men's individual 10m air rifle event while Disha had finished sixth in women's individual 10m air rifle event. Munna had won silver in the men's 10m air rifle event on Saturday.
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