Medal-rush in karate events
Bangladesh bagged one medal each in all nine events of karate on the second day of the 13th South Asian Games in Nepal yesterday.
Mostafa Kamal won silver in 55-kg category of men’s kumi while Mounjera Barna won silver in the same weight category of women’s kumi event. Apart from those, Bangladesh bagged seven bronze medals in other events of the discipline, which is being held at Satdobato in Lalitpur.
The medal-rush began with young Humaira Akhter Antara winning Bangladesh’s first bronze medal of the Games, after narrowly missing out on final of women’s individual kata.
Antara, who is a recent HSC-graduate from Dhaka, finished third in the first round comprising of five competitors.
“I am happy to win the first medal for the country. I would have been happier had I made it to the final, which I missed due to a small mistake. I will try to win a better medal tomorrow in kumite event,” Antara said after the event.
Pakistan’s Shahida won gold in the event, which was the first medal-deciding event of the Games, beating Nepal’s Chanchala Danuwar in the final.
Later, Hassan Khan Sun won a bronze medal men’s individual kata, finishing third among four participants.
Sun had struck gold in the 2010 SA Games in Dhaka, but this time his effort was not good enough to match those of karatekas from Nepal and Pakistan.
Nepal’s Manday Kaju Shreshtha won the gold while Pakistan’s Inamatullah grabbed the silver medal.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh men’s volleyball team failed to win a medal from these Games after suffering a 3-1 sets defeat to Sri Lanka in the place-deciding match.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh women’s cricket team will begin their journey for gold today when they take on title contenders Sri Lanka in their first match of the Twenty20 competition in Pokhara today.
This is the first time women’s cricket has been included in the Games’ roster even though men’s cricket was featured once in the 2010 edition in Dhaka. Bangladesh won gold there, and the men’s team this time, captained by Najmul Hossain Shanto, will start their campaign against Maldives at the Tribhuban University Ground tomorrow.