Archers off to World Cup

The Bangladesh archery team were scheduled to fly for Germany in the early hours today to take part in the Berlin Archery World Cup for the first time with experienced archer Emdadul Haque Milon staging a comeback to the national fold after two years. The World Cup will be held from July 16 to 22.

Milon was the lone archer from the country to qualify for the 2010 Youth Olympic Games on merit by winning a gold medal in the qualification round.

The 25-year-old, however, lost form since then and has been in and out of the national team following the emergence of other archers like Ruman Sana, Tamimul Islam and Sheikh Sajib. He was finally dropped from the national team after the Asian Archery Championship in Thailand in 2016.

However, Milon has regained some form under the guidance of new German coach Martin Frederick and overcame stiff competition to secure a place in the four-archer recurve men's team.

A total of eight archers -- five for recurve and three for compound -- will be competing in the World Cup fort the first time, having played the World Archery Championships thrice in 2011, 2013 and 2015.

The recurve men's team include Ruman Sana -- who will join the team from Switzerland -- Tamimul Islam, Sheikh Ibrahim and Milon while only Nasrin Akter will be vying in the women's event. Ashim Kumar Das, Abul Kashem Mamun and Bonna Akter will be taking part in the compound event.

“The standard of Archery World Cup is higher than competitions Bangladesh usually take part in. We want to see where our archers are at the moment and assess them,” said assistant coach Ziaul Haque, adding that the World Cup is also part of the preparations for the upcoming Asian Games.