Archery show begins today

Bangladesh is hoping to emulate their performance from the last edition as the 2nd ISSF International Solidarity Archery Championships begins at the Maulana Bhasani Hockey Stadium today.

The hosts, who bagged six gold medals in the championships' inaugural edition in Dhaka in January 2017, are hoping to win at least the same number of gold if not more. A total of 74 archers from 18 countries, including hosts Bangladesh with 16 archers, will compete in 10 events of recurve and compound.

Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Chad, Iraq, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Saud Arabia, Libya, Nepal, Morocco, Turkey, Tunisia, the UAE, Uganda, Mauritania, Egypt, Pakistan and Estonia are the other countries taking part.

“Holding the event for five consecutive years will give our archery a big boost. Besides, hosting these events will also help us get the logistical support. We have got a results management system from the Islamic Solidarity Sports Federation (ISSF) for this purpose which would not have been possible for us to install as it is quite expensive,” Bangladesh Archery Federation (BAF) general secretary Kazi Razibuddin Ahmed Chapal told a press conference at the Bangladesh Olympic Association auditorium yesterday.

These championships will have ranking points, which will be reflected in the world ranking of the archers, he added.

Bangladesh team coach Martin Frederick expressed his optimism about the event even though he said he does not have much information about the quality of the archers from the other participating teams.

“We've had a good amount of training. We've also had internal qualifications among the archers for the Asian Games. However, as I was not the coach of Bangladesh during the first edition of these championships, I do not know about the participating teams,” said the German, who has been in charge of the Bangladesh team since late February.

“Our archers are quite young and you need experience to shine. Despite that we can expect some good performance from them,” added Frederick.

BAF president Lieutenant General (retd) Mohammad Moinul Islam said they were in talks with the game's world governing body about setting up an exclusive archery venue while there are some other development works going on to get the game moving. 

Mohammed SM Algarnas, secretary general of the ISSF, thanked the BAF for hosting the championships for the second time.

The championships will be officially inaugurated at 3:00pm today and will conclude on Wednesday. All the 10 medals will be decided on the concluding day.