Diya, Hakim promise further glory

Diya Siddique and Hakim Ahmed Rubel promised to improve their performance in international events after winning a gold medal at the Asia Cup World Ranking Archery event in Chinese Taipei on Sunday.

The Bangladeshi pair beat their Kazakh opponents – Ilfat Abdullin and Alina Ilyassova – by 5-3 sets in the final of recurve mixed team event.

"Alhamdulillah. It was nice the way we bounced back. We will do better in future, insha'Allah," said Diya in her instant reaction.

Having lost the first set by 38-36 points, Diya and Hakim bounced back to take the next two sets by 36-35 and 37-33 before drawing the final set 39-39.

"We are satisfied as we could execute our plans. We will perform better in future," added Hakim, who occupies the 34th spot in world rankings.

Hakim later won his individual bronze medal match against Ilfat Abdullin of Kazakhstan by 6-4 sets but Diya, ranked 39th, lost the bronze-medal match of individual recurve event against Mashaiykh Syaqiera of Malaysia by 6-4 set points.

The duo had previously paired up to achieve major success when they bagged a silver medal in recurve mixed event at the 2021 Asian Archery Championship in Dhaka.