National athletics starts today
Walton 11th National Summer Athletics Championships start today at the Bangabandhu National Stadium with more than 400 athletes taking part in the event. Athletes from different districts, divisions, education boards universities and services will compete in 54 events during the two-day meet, it was revealed at a press conference yesterday at the Bangladesh Athletics Federation.
A total of 26 events will take place today staring from 8am and continuing till 5pm while the main events of the meet, the 100m sprint for men and women, will be held on the last day -- tomorrow.
Hammer throw, marathon and 20km walk events will take place at the Army Stadium.
The meet has a total budget of Tk 8 lakh out of which Tk 3 lakh will be provided by sponsors Walton, while the rest will be borne by the federation.
Shah Alam, the president of the federation also informed that Bangladesh will not send an athletics team to the Olympic Games in London next year, as decided by BOA, as only teams of archery and shooting will be sent considering their potential.
“It is very sad that we will not be talking part in the main event of the Olympics. We will send a letter to BOA within three days to know the reason of athletics' omission from the list,” said Shah Alam.
Meanwhile, Shah Alam said they were trying their best to utilise the electronic scoreboard during the meet. It has become a regular scenario that the electronic scoreboard lies unused as the athletics meets go on under hand timing, despite repeated promises made from the federation of use of the electronic system.
The meet will be declared open by the president of the parliamentary committee for youth and sports, Zahid Ahsan Russell MP.
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