Footballer wins sprint gold
Often referred to as Kylian Mbappe for his nippy runs upfront which resemble that of the Paris Saint-Germain superstar, footballer Samiul Islam became the country’s fastest teenager by bagging a gold medal in the 35th National Junior Athletics Championships’ 18-19 age-group 100m sprint event yesterday.
Samiul, who plays as a hired striker in the southern region of Bangladesh for his family’s bread and butter, clocked in at 11.41 seconds (electronic) to best the other well-trained athletes and win the gold, which was his second in an athletic discipline. Samiul had won a gold medal in the 400m-run event in 2017 for Khulna Division.
“To be honest, I had no preparation for this championship but I had only a few running practice during football training session in Khulna. I had a hope to win at least a medal but I didn’t hope to win the gold. However, my confidence grew when I beat BKSP students in heats and started dreaming to win the gold medal,” said the stocky Samiul. “No one else is as happy as me because I beat other prepared athletes without preparation and won the gold medal.”
Mohammad Limon of Kurigram and Sultan Ahmed of Natore became second and third by clocking in at 11.50 and 11.53 seconds respectively.
“Actually I love to play football and I am often called Kylian Mbappe for my running upfront. But I also participate in athletics because I have a job at the Crescent Jute Mills in Khulna under BJMC. And that’s a reason behind taking part in athletics as BJMC provide me Tk 1850 per week which helps me a lot to support my six-member family,” continued Samiul.
Although he dreams of playing professional football in Dhaka, Samiul does not dare to make a move in fear of losing BJMC’s financial support.
“My father is sick and can’t work, so is his elder son, I am supporting my family by playing football and doing the BJMC job. I can’t take the risk of going Dhaka because there is less money in football in the initial stages and if I leave BJMC job, then my family will suffer,” said twelfth grader, who claims to have scored 30 to 40 goals in the matches where he was hired.
Meanwhile in the girl’s 100m sprint, Sonia Akter from BKSP bagged the gold medal by clocking in at 12.66 seconds (electronic). Teammate Afria Alin took 13.42 seconds to finish second while Tania of Shariatpur finished third with a timing of 14.07 seconds.
“From the beginning, I believed that I could produce something good and I did it. I am satisfied with the timing, which is my best in electronic timer,” said eleventh grader Sonia, who won a gold medal in the U-16-17 age-group event during the 2016 edition.
Apart from the 100m sprints, the opening day of the junior meet saw two national records created in high jump in both sections of both girls (kishori) and boys (Kishor). Julfiker Nayeem Jihan of BKSP cleared 1.96 meters to eclipsing the previous record of 1.95, which was registered by BKSP student Masud Rana in 2017.
Differently-abled beats able-bodied to bronze
In the same event, Selim Reza from Narail, who has had a disability since birth, drew everyone’s attention by competing against able-bodied athletes and bagging a high-jump bronze medal by clearing 1.75 meters.
Jannatul of BKSP broke her previous record of 1.61 meters in the girl’s U-18-19 age group to set a new record at 1.65 meters.