Krishna steals the spotlight
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Weightlifting produced six more records -- three each in men and women categories -- to take the total records tally eight in the last two days in Mymensingh.
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Swimmer Kajal Mia registered his second record in 200m individual medley event on the final day to take the total records in swimming events to 11. Bangladesh Navy dominated the pool as they won 33 golds out of 42.
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While many internationally successful athletes across disciplines returned home empty-handed, SA Games double-gold medallist swimmer Mahfuza Khatun Shila shone in her pet event of 50m backstroke to win a gold medal yesterday.
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Five more disciplines -- archery, swimming, cycling, table tennis and rugby -- completed their events in the last two days. Seven disciplines had completed their events in the first four days of Games.
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Young Sadia Rahman Mou broke the dominance of Sonom Sultana Soma to emerge champion in women's table tennis singles and helped Bangladesh Ansar top the chart with five golds, two silvers and five bronzes, leaving behind Bangladesh Police who grabbed the remaining two golds.
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SA Games gold medalist karateka Humaira Akter Antara had to stay content with a silver medal after losing to gold medalist Nu Me Marma, a student of 2010 SA Games gold medalist karatekas Ushu Pru Marma, in the final of the Kata event in Bandarban.
Following the elimination of country's top archer Ruman Sana in pre-quarterfinal stage, the focus was on men's individual recurve event in the Bangabandhu 9th Bangladesh Games, and Ram Krishna Saha stole the spotlight by winning gold medal in this event at the Shaheed Ahsan Ullah Master Stadium in Tongi yesterday.
Krishna, competing for Bangladesh Air Force, staged a strong comeback in the final round to beat Tamimul Islam of Bangladesh Police in shootout after the final was tied at 5-5 set points. The archer from Faridpur hit 10 in the deciding tiebreak while Tamim could only manage nine.
"It was a tough final for me because I trailed by 5-1 set points at one stage before fighting back. I was also under tremendous pressure but I kept my cool and used all my experience to reach the target," said the 2019 national championship winner, who belongs to the same generation of archers as Ruman.
"I got admitted in BKSP in 2009 and was once part of the national team but I was out of competitive archery due to training in Bangladesh Air Force from 2016 to 2018. Now I'm training regularly and dreaming of representing Bangladesh again," Krishna said. "Now I have to secure a place in the national team, which is not an easy thing as there is hardly any difference among the top archers."
Despite being a contemporary, Krishna sees Ruman as an inspiration.
"I am hungry for international medals and want to play in the upcoming World Cup. I think Ruman drove all other archers in Bangladesh to dream big," said Krishna.
Krishna's effort helped Bangladesh Air Force to a gold medal but Bangladesh Army dominated the medals table with four gold, one silver and three bronze medals as its archers showed improvement in individual scores.
Explaining the reasons behind Bangladesh Army's success, coach Mohammad Sajjad Hossain said, "During the pandemic, our archers availed uninterrupted training opportunity in cantonment which actually helped them to perform consistently in big stage."
"We also introduced internal weekend competition in a bid to bringing competitive attitude among the archers. Besides, we also set individual scoring targets for each archer. Archers such as Tania Rima and Roksana produced their best scores in the Games while Nasrin Akter made her best of 147 out of 150 on way to winning gold medal in compound event," said Sajjad, country's first international gold-winning archer.
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