Sagar pulls out of 200m freestyle

Bangladesh's number one swimmer Mahfizur Rahman Sagar has ruled himself out of the 200m freestyle -- the first of his three scheduled events -- citing a lack of preparation time and jetlag.

The 25-year-old swimmer, who represented Bangladesh in multiple Olympics as well as the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, among other events, said he would rather reserve his energy for the other two events, namely the 100m freestyle and 50m freestyle.

Bangladesh's swim team, which features Sagar and Khadiza Akter, arrived here on Friday evening. “We have had little time to practice. My target is to improve my timing, so I decided to skip this event,” Sagar said.

The heats for the men's 200m freestyle is scheduled to start at 9:00am today while the men's 50m freestyle is on Tuesday and the men's 100m freestyle is on Thursday.

Kabaddi, Shooting starts today

Meanwhile, Bangladesh's quest for a medal will begin in earnest today as the kabaddi and shooting teams' start their campaign in Jakarta and Palembang respectively.

Bangladesh women's kabaddi team, who won a bronze medal in the last two editions of the Games, will play against Chinese Taipei while the men, who have not won a medal in the last two editions, will take on defending champions India today.

The shooting contingent will embark on their mission for success with the 10m air rifle mixed team and 10m air pistol mixed team events slated for today, where Arnab Sharar Ladib, Syeda Atkiya Hasan, Noor Hasan Alif and Ardina Ferdous will be competing.