Archery World Championships: Bangladesh set sights on Olympic quota places

Following a good performance in recently-concluded Archery World Cup (Stage-2) in Shanghai earlier this month, Bangladesh have set their sights on a top-eight finish in the upcoming World Archery Championships, scheduled to begin on June 9 in the Netherlands. The men’s Recurve team consists of Ruman Sana, Tamimul Islam and Hakim Ahmed Rubel.

Bangladeshi archers had participated before in the biennial World Archery Championships thrice in 2011, 2013 and 2015 but failed to turn up in Mexico in 2017 due to trouble with their visas. Although there were hardly any expectations then, this time around there are high hopes of securing quota places for the Tokyo Olympics by finishing among the top eight in the Men’s Recurve team event.

“Before we had participated to gain experience, but this time we will be participating to do something good because the results of Shanghai World Cup have inspired us. We could not win a medal there but our archers battled in the bronze medal match in recurve team event,” said Bangladesh Archery Federation general secretary Kazi Razibuddin Ahmed Chapal at press conference.

“Finishing fourth in a World Cup tournament means Bangladesh are knocking on the door of going further. It is the same team with the same mood and fighting spirit and they will fight bravely against the mighty opponents I believe,” said German coach Martin Fredrick. “The World Archery Championship is an important meet, from which eight men’s recurve teams will get tickets to take part in the Tokyo Olympics directly.”

“The first target is to finish among top 24 teams out of 58 in the qualification round of the men’s recurve team event. Afterwards, if we can win two more matches, we will reach the quarterfinals which will be a very good result for us and it is our goal although the task is very for the boys,” said Fredrick, adding that the top eight men’s recurve teams will secure tickets to participate in the Tokyo Olympics directly. 

Bangladesh will also be competing in the men’s recurve individual, women’s recurve individual, recurve mixed, men’s compound individual, women’s compound individual and mixed compound but Fredrick is focused on the men’s recurve team event, as they reached the semifinals in World Cup (Stage-2) in Shanghai.

“Ruman Sana is an experienced archer and if he can move into 16/2 round, then I will be happy with his performance but it is still a tough task for him because he has to first place among 104 archers out of 211 during the elimination round,” said Fredrick. “Tamimul Islam and Hakim Ahmed Rubel are inexperienced archers and I will be happy if they enter the elimination round in men’s recurve individual event.”

Team manager Faruque Dhali will accompany six archers and two coaches, who are scheduled to leave here for Netherlands on June 7.