Ruman third shot at foreign gold
Bangladesh's top archer Ruman Sana reached the final of the men's recurve individual event in the Asia Cup: World Ranking Tournament (Stage-1) by posting four straight victories in Bangkok, Thailand yesterday.
Ruman, ranked first among 60 participants after registering his career best scores in the qualification round of the ongoing tournament, continued his brilliant performance when squared off with his counterparts from India, Myanmar, Russia and Thailand to ensure his overall sixth final berth at the international level.
Although the 23-year-old faced stiff challenges in the in the pre-quarterfinals and quarterfinals, he defeated his more illustrious opponents in the third round and semifinal matches relatively easily.
Having secured direct entry to the third round following a first place finish in the qualification round, Ruman beat India's Sutradhar Swakirti by 6-0 sets defeat before handing Myanmar's Lin Oo Nay a 7-3 set defeat in the fourth round. In the quarterfinals, Ruman outclassed Russia's Bair Tsybekdorzhiev by 7-3 sets.
The Bangladeshi archer then beat Thailand's Witthaya Thamwong by 6-2 sets in the semifinals to set up Saturday's final against Kazakhstan's Abdullin Ilfat.
“There was wind at the venue but I coped with it very well. The matches were not easy because a couple of opponents had experience of playing in the Olympic Games,” Ruman told The Daily Star over the phone.
“However, I didn't pay much heed on the opponents, rather I concentrated on me and tried to play my own game without thinking what would happen. Thank God I performed well and reached the final,” Ruman continued. “There is nothing to say about the final but I can tell you that I will try my level best.”
Interestingly, the two gold medals Ruman has both came from tournaments held abroad. He bagged his maiden gold medal in the same event during the First Asian Archery Grand Prix in 2014 in Thailand while the second came from the International Archery tournament in 2017 in Kyrgyzstan.
Since then, Ruman has gone close to winning gold thrice but he had to remain content with silver medals from three tournaments -- the 3rd ISSF International Solidarity Archery Championships in 2019, 2nd ISSF International Solidarity Archery Championships in 2018 and 3rd South Asian Archery Championship in 2018 -- which were held in Bangladesh.
With this being the third time Ruman will play a final abroad, he will surely hope to make up those losses at home.
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