Army win big

Though national recurve arches managed to avoid huge upsets in the Teer 9th National Archery Championships, the national compound archers failed to even reach the bronze medal deciding matches on the concluding day of the meet at the Shaheed Ahsan Ullah Master Stadium in Tongi yesterday.

In the individual men's recurve bow event, top archer Ruman Sana beat Sheikh Sojib by 7-3 points to grab the gold medal while Tamimul defeated Ibrahim Rezwon 7-1 to conform a bronze medal. Only Hakim Ahmed Rubel, who was part of the national team in the Asian Archery Championship, did not reach the medal deciding matches.

On the other hand, in the individual men's compound bow event Ashikuzzaman Anay, Ratan Mia and Ashim Kumar Das won gold, silver and bronze medals respectively while national players Abu Kashem Mamun, Millon Molla, Ehsan Ahmed and Najmul Ahmed were ousted before the medal deciding matches.

Bangladesh Army became the champions with five gold and four silver medals. Teerondaj Sangsad, who won two gold, three silver and five bronze medals, followed in second place while BKSP finished on third with two gold, two silver and one bronze medal.

Among the winners, Ety Khatun was a surprise finding as she was discovered through the National Sports Committee talent hunt programme. The girl from Chuadanga drew everyone's attention by overcoming national archer Rabeya Khatun in the bronze medal deciding match.

Ety, now an eighth grade student, left playing handball to pick up archery and attended the talent hunt alongside a friend. As luck would have it, the 19-year-old then got selected for the training programme in Dhaka last year and played for Teerondaj Sangsad in the just concluded competition for her debut appearance at the national level.

Apart from Ety, Bangladesh Army's Roksana Akter also stole the limelight as she won three gold medals -- the individual women's compound, women's team compound and mixed event.

“It is my best performance since I started to play in 2014. I am confident to do better this time,” said Roksana, who won a gold medal in the women's team event in the national championship and grabbed a silver medal in the women's team event in World Cup Stage-1 in Thailand.