Hosts far from best
Though none of the Bangladesh archers were able to score their individual bests on the opening day of the ISSF International Solidarity Archery Championships, the host nation's top archers -- Roman Sana and Roksana Akter -- finished on top of the qualification rounds for the recurve and compound events at the Maulana Bhasani Hockey Stadium yesterday.
Roman scored 666 out of 720, just one point shy of his best score which came at the South Asian Archery Championships in March, in the qualification round for the men's recurve event. In the same event Ibrahim Sheikh frustrated with a score of 620, 30 less than his exploits at the SA Archery Championship which earned him gold, to finish 10th out of 26 competitors.
Timimul Islam scored 647, three short of his highest tally which was produced at the Asian Archery Championships in Dhaka last November, to finish third while Sheikh Sajib scored 619 to claim 11th place. Saudi Arabia's Binali Abdalehah was second with 652 points.
“Actually our archers faced some difficulties to find the target due to heavy winds at the venue but the coach inspired me from the back to do well,” said Roman. “I had a consistent performance because of I have international experience but my teammates faced problems due to the strong wind. The scores could have been better had we got a few days to practice here.”
SA Archery Championships gold-medallist Ibrahim seemed upset with his scores and blamed a pain in his wrist as well as tension over his SSC examination results as the culprits behind the result.
“Apart from strong winds during the shot, I also felt pain in my wrist. Besides, I was a bit worried over my SSC result but I am now looking forward to doing better in the elimination round and have set a target to reach the semifinals,” said Ibrahim, who passed the SCC exam with 3.32 GPA.
In the women's compound qualification round, Roksana Akter scored 676, 20 more than her result at the SA Archery Championship but 8 less than her score at the Asian Archery Championship in Dhaka, which was her overall best. Roksana secured the top position while Bonna Akter (659), Ritu Aktar (652) and Soma Biswas (635), finished fourth, fifth and sixth respectively. Estonia's Hoim Emily and Iraq's Almash Hadani Fatmah scored 672 and 666 to claim the second and third positions respectively to put some pressure on Roksana, who won a gold medal in the women's compound event at the SA Archery Championships in March at the BKSP.
Bangladesh's German coach Martin Fredrick had no explanation for the poor show from the host team but the 50-year-old was still looking forward to the elimination round.
“It was a little complicated today [Sunday] and the first spell of shooting was not good but they did well in the second part of the game. Especially, Roksana in compound event did well to finish on top. Roman also finished top in the men's recurve event. We are looking forward to how the boys and girls will perform in head-to-head competition [Elimination round],” said Fredrick, who has been training local archers since late February.
“I don't count medals, rather I will count how many arrows the archers shoot flawlessly. I try to fight, try to do my best, I try to motivate the team and see what happens,” Fredrick continued.
The qualification round for the women's recurve and men's compound events will be held today alongside the men's recurve and women's compound elimination rounds.
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