Mamun hogs the limelight
Abul Kashem Mamun emerged from nowhere to move into the quarterfinals of men's individual compound event of the 20th Asian Archery Championships after Roman Sana saw his own hopes get shattered in recurve event at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.
All the focus was on Sana due to his performance in the last edition, but the lad from Khulna was eliminated from the pre-quarterfinal stage after a nail-biting 4-6 defeat to Liyen Yu of Chinese Taipei.
The focus shifted to Mamun, who beat 7th-ranked Akbarali Karabayev of Kazakhstan in the pre-quarterfinal after producing his best performance in the previous round against 10th-ranked Weng I-Chen of Chinese Taipei.
Mamun, who was away from archery between 2011 and 2016 to concentrate on his studies, was not supposed to participate in the competition at all, but a delay in announcement of degree exams gave him the chance, and he grabbed the opportunity with both hands.
The 25-year-old was on target to score 149 out of 150 -- only one out of 15 shots hit nine -- and outshone Weng I-Chen, who could manage 145.
Mamun then set his pre-quarterfinal clash against Akbarali, who led the way till 12 shots with two points more (118) than Mamun. But the lad from Narail held his nerve to score 30 out of 30 in the last three shots while Akbarali could only manage 27 to lose the match 145-146.
The feat offered Mamun a place in the last-eight, a stage he had previously reached in the Asia Cup in Thailand in February this year.
“I was really determined to beat the Chinese Taipei player today after losing my quarterfinal match against another Chinese Taipei player in the Asia Cup. I recorded my all-time best score in this match,” Mamun said, adding that he had scored 149 only once in a practice session before while his average score in competitive matches is 140.
After beating Weng I-Chen, Mamun salvaged a losing position to beat Akbarali by a single point. “When the fifth set comprising three arrows started, I was trailing by three points [actually two points] and thought I would have no chance if the opponent scored 28 or 29. At the same time, I heard that [Roman Sana] Sujan won the match and I thought it was now my turn to confirm the quarterfinals,” Mamun said. “The coach told me to score 30. I went to the mark without any pressure and did just that.”
Mamun will play his quarterfinal match against 2nd-ranked Abhishek Varma of India today.
After confirming the quarterfinal berth, Mamun was happy but not overwhelmed because compound is not given as much attention as recurve, which is an Olympic event.
“I was not involved with archery for four years because of my studies, which I think is the most important thing for an athlete because I won't get any job even if I become an A+ archer. I would not have participated in this tournament if my degree exams were declared on Nov 24,” said Mamun, who resumed playing one month before the ISSF Islamic Solidarity Archery Championships in January this year where he had won gold medals in men's compound and compound mixed events.
Meanwhile, the first two gold medals of the championships went to South Korea, who won gold in recurve mixed and compound mixed events beating Japan and India while Vietnam and Kazakhstan won bronze medals in those events.
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