Ety Khatun
Heading towards the overarching glory, Bangladesh bagged ten gold medals for archery in 2019. Bangladesh’s archers swept all ten gold medals of the 13th South Asian Games, setting both a few individual and collective records in Pokhara. Bangladesh won all six team gold medals in recurve and compound archery: Ruman Sana in men’s recurve individual, Ety Khatun in women’s recurve individual, Sohel Rana in men’s compound individual and Suma Biswash in women’s compound individual events. Ruman, Sohel and Ety achieved three gold medals each, with Ety, the 14-year-old archer from Chuadanga, becoming the first female athlete from the country to win three gold medals in a single edition of the games. Ety, the young archer, has a success story that serves as an inspiration to many upcoming archers. Even though Ety made history by bringing in golds in women’s single recurve, women’s team recurve and mixed recurve, but the beginning of her archery career tells us the triumphing part of her life. The 14-year old, Ety, was forced to live an underprivileged life, where her father, Ebadat Ali, was the only bread earner in the family. Due to poverty, her father thought education was a luxury to afford, and wanted to marry her off at the age of eleven. However, Ety’s strong drive to continue her education changed her parents’ minds. Later, in December 2016, Ety got her big break in archery when she participated in the Archery Talent Hunt in Chuadanga. Some ten archers were selected from a total of forty participants, and five of them were sent to Dhaka for higher training, Ety being one of them. Under the guidance of Sohel Akram, Ety spread the wings of success, through great determination and hard work. Earlier, in 2019, Ety qualified for the Tokyo Olympics 2020, and we hope that she hits the hawkeye and brings in more gold for the nation. Ety defied age and social norms to live her dreams, and today, she stands as a role model to us all.
Afif Hossain Dhurbo
Afif Hossain Dhurbo, the rising young cricketer from Khulna has proven to be an asset to the Bangladeshi Cricket team with his outstanding performance in the field. This 19-year old all-rounder was first addressed among big names like David Wayne, James Roy, Nicholas Pooran in BPL 2016 when he was playing for Rajshahi Kings, where he took five wickets as the youngest bowler (17 years) in a T20. Since his childhood, he always dreamt of becoming a cricketer, and to make his dream a reality, his father got him admitted to Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishtan (BKSP) in 2010. Gradually, this young man’s dream to join the national team came to life. His first T20 international debut was in February 15, 2018, Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka at Dhaka. In a very short period of time, he has made an amazing portfolio which consists of vice-captaincy of the Bangladesh U-19 side for the 2016 Asia Cup. He is remarked as a big-hitter at the U-19 level, and coaches find him similar to Tamim Iqbal. With many years to come, we believe Afif has a lot more to offer, and we wish him the best for his future endeavours.
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