Hasan Mia sets new record

Hasan Mia set a new record in 100m sprint of tender-aged (U-19) boys' group of the 33rd National Junior Athletics Championships on way to winning a gold medal at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.

Hasan, an eighth grader from BKSP, raced past 200m gold-winner Rakibul Hasan by clocking 10.60 seconds and eclipsing the previous record of 10.70 seconds set by his BKSP teammate Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman in 2015.

Hasan, who had produced a record in 100m event (U-17) in 2016, accelerated over the last 25 meters to beat Rakibul, who had on Sunday declared his intention of beating Bangladesh's fastest man Mezbah Ahmed within the next two years after winning the 200m gold medal. Rakibul's timing, however, was 0.10 seconds faster than Mezbah's timing in the most recent summer athletics.

“I ran really well today [Monday] compared to the practice sessions and I was confident about winning the gold medal,” said an ecstatic Hasan.

“I think I can still improve my timing and I will try to do that in the future,” said the youngster, who came into athletics after being inspired by his elder brother Faruqul Islam, who is a relay athlete of Bangladesh Army.

Another BKSP student Disha Sultana completed a double by winning gold in the 100m tender-aged (U-19) girls' event with a timing of 12.80 seconds. However, her timing was is far behind Bangladesh's fastest woman Shirin Akter's, who had won the same event in summer athletics with a time of 11.84 seconds. Disha had, on Sunday, won the 200m gold medal.

“I am happy to win two gold medals but I am not happy with my timing. I want to improve my timing to do better in the next national championships,” said Disha.

Disha's junior teammate Rupa Khatun clinched girls' (U-17) 100m event following her triumph in 200m on Sunday. Rupa, a class IX student, took 12.60 seconds to win gold while Sonia Akter of BKSP won silver clocking 12.70 seconds.

Out of the eight events in 100m and 200m of two different groups, BKSP, the country's lone sports education institute, grabbed five gold medals while the remaining three gold medals went to athletes from the districts' who had no facilities like BKSP.

Sultan Ahmed from Natore outshone the BKSP students in both 100m and 200m sprints in boys' U-17 events. After winning 200m gold on Sunday, Sultan clocked 11.40 seconds to win the 100m gold medal.

“I always question myself if a BKSP student can win gold, why not an outsider? I practised round the year to win the gold medal,” said Sultan.

BKSP coach Abdullah Al Kafi believes training round the year at BKSP and comparatively weaker athletes from the districts helps BKSP dominate sprint.

“It is true that athletes from districts don't get the facilities that the BSKP students get. Besides, good athletes are not coming through from the districts as the districts are more focused on other sports. We however focus more on short-distance events, so winning gold in sprint is easy for the BKSP students,” said Kafi.

BKSP ended the two-day competition on top of the medals table with 17 gold, 10 silver and five bronze medals. Narail were in second position with 13 medals while Kurigram finished third with eight medals.