Reza hopeful for good results at SA Games
Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA) secretary general Syed Shahed Reza believes that Bangladesh will produce better results in the upcoming South Asian (SA) Games in Nepal that they had in the last edition of the multi-sports event. Bangladesh won only four gold medals in the previous edition with two coming from swimming events while the remainder came from shooting and weightlifting events.
Reza expressed these sentiments after attending a meeting with the higher-ups of 25 national federations at the Olympic Bhaban yesterday. At the meeting, they also discussed about finalizing the Bangladesh contingent for December’s 1-10 Games in Kathmandu.
Reza expressed his expectation after having a meeting with the high-ups of 25 national federation at Olympic Bhaban yesterday where they also discussed about the finalizing Bangladesh continent for the SA Games, to be held from December 1 to 10 in Kathmandu.
“I believe that Bangladesh will produce better results this time than they had in the previous edition. I am saying this on the basis of the athlete’s performances in the ongoing training camp. Besides, we have also analysed some data on the athletes,” said Reza.
The BOA began the training camp for 23 of 25 disciplines in July and is currently ongoing under the supervision of the BOA, which also looked into why Bangladesh could only secure a single gold medal in 2016 despite having won 18 gold medals in the 2010 edition in Dhaka.
“This time, we have given importance to those disciplines which have good potential in upcoming games and we are also watching the progress of athletes of those disciplines in training. Those things are helping us believe we can produce good results,” said Reza, who is also the chairman of the training and development committee.
Training and development committee member secretary AK Sarkar informed that hired foreign coaches for 10 disciplines -- Kabaddi, taekwondo, basketball, swimming, karate, volleyball, fencing, judo, archery and shooting.
“I am satisfied with the training as we have been trying to provide support as much as we can with our limited resources. We have even sent three teams -- kabaddi to India, karate to Malaysia and boxing to Thailand -- aboard for better training,” said Sarker, who believes that Bangladesh could do well in disciplines such as shooting, archery, football and cricket.
“If you look back, we had success in those disciplines in the SA Games in the past. Besides, the athletes of those disciplines are also doing well in the training though it is always difficult to win the gold fighting against mighty India,” said Sarkar.
In response to a query, Sarker said, “There is the possibility of producing good results at demonstration events in martial-arts disciplines like judo, karate and others because of the absence of Afghanistan, who quit from the sub-continent multi-sports extravaganza.”
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