RABBI shoots to silver

Young shooter Rabbi Hasan Munna brought the first medal for Bangladesh on the first day of action in the 4th Islamic Solidarity Games in Baku, Azerbaijan yesterday.

The 21-year-old, who was under the shadow of his more illustrious compatriot Abdullahel Baki, surprised all to grab the silver medal in his pet event of 10m air rifle with a score of 245.5 points. Omer Akgun of Turkey won gold with a score of 249.8 points while Saidkhon Sayfuddinov of Uzbekistan settled for bronze.

Rabbi's silver win was quite a surprise for all as the Bangladesh contingent were pinning their hopes on the experienced Baki, who had won a silver medal in the Commonwealth Games in 2014. While Baki made it to the final round in sixth position and eventually finished fifth, young Rabbi from Tangail held on to his qualifying position of second and finished the final round behind the gold medallist. Rabbi scored 624 points in qualification, 0.9 points behind Akgun.

“I am very happy with this result even though I'm a bit disappointed at not having won the gold,” Rabbi said when contacted over phone last night.  “I started with a lead in the final round, but after first five shots I slipped behind a bit. However, I came back in the last few shots and closed the gap with the others to secure the silver.”

The other Bangladeshi participants, meanwhile, failed to get themselves on the podium, despite a couple of them being in contention for medals.

In the women's 10m air rifle event Syeda Atkiya Hasan finished sixth while Mahfuza Jannat Jui finished 14th.

Swimmer Mahfuza Khatun Shila, who won two gold medals in South Asian Games last year, finished her 50m breaststroke event in sixth position, taking 34.81 seconds to finish. The timing was 0.47 seconds more than her personal best set in the SA Games.

Ariful Islam was eliminated from the semifinals of the men's 50m breaststroke event, securing 12th position among 16 semifinalists. Naima Akter was also eliminated from the semifinals of the 100m backstroke after clocking 1:12.12sec. In the women's 800m freestyle event, Nazma Khatun became seventh after clocking 10:49.98sec.

Gymnast Saddam Hossain finished 18th out of 18 competitors in all three of his events.