Shirin, Mahfuz raise the bar
Mahfuzur Rahman of Bangladesh Navy set a new national record in the high-jump event on the second and final day of the 35th Trust Bank National Summer Athletics Championships yesterday, raising hopes of a medal in the upcoming South Asian Games.
The Kushtia-born athlete, who won five gold medals in national meets earlier in his career over last five years, was satisfied with having bettered his own record and the national one too, with a 2.15 metre jump, erasing the previous record of 2.11m at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.
“I’m very happy with the performance. I tried to break the record three times previously, but didn’t succeed,” said Mahfuzur, who joined Bangladesh Navy last year.
“I have gradually improved my mark. In the last national meet, I cleared 2.00m and then I cleared 2.12m in the inter-defence meet. My target for the SA Games is to clear 2.20m, which should earn me a medal,” said Mahfuzur.
There were two more records made on the second day, one of which went to sprint-queen Shirin Akter. The Navy athlete motored her way towards breaking Shohagi Akter’s 200m record from earlier this year, clocking 24:97 seconds.
Even though there was no new record in the men’s 200m event, there was a surprise in the form of Saiful Islam Khan Sunny, who beat national champion and favourite Zahir Raihan.
Sunny, another Bangladesh Navy athlete, clocked 21:83 seconds to finish his dash.
Sunny had won the summer meet gold in 2017, but he failed to defend that to rising star Zahir.
Sunny was out with a stress fracture for three months in April this year, and was not even considered for the SA Games training camp. The former BKSP student hopes this performance will help him get a place in the camp.
“After the 400m yesterday, I felt confident that I could do well in my event, which is the 200m. I trained hard and succeeded by my own willpower. I hope now I would get a chance in the SA Games team,” the 22-year-old sprinter from Brahmanbaria said.
These performances helped Navy emerge champions with 19 gold, 15 silver and 12 bronze medals.
Bangladesh Army finished second with 14 gold, 17 silver and 10 bronze medals. BJMC finished third with one gold, two silver and two bronze medals.
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