Roman Sana scores his best
Roman Sana produced his best international score to finish 11th out of 79 archers in the qualification round of men's individual recurve bow in the 20th Asian Archery Championships yesterday.
The opening day of the competition also saw a world record in women's compound team event at the Bangabandhu National Stadium.
Roman, who is hoping to reach at least the quarterfinals, eclipsed his previous best of 664 set in ISSF Islamic Solidarity Archery Championship in Dhaka by scoring 666 out of 720. His teammates Tamimul Islam, Hakim Ahmed Rubel and Sheikh Ibrahim Rezwan became 31st, 41st and 65th with scores of 660, 638 and 601 respectively to qualify for the elimination round which begins today.
Roman and Tamimul, however, have been given byes in the first elimination round while Rubel and Rezwan will have to fight against Rogelio Miguel of Philippines and Gaurav Trambak Lambe of India respectively in the first elimination round.
Meanwhile, South Korean archers expectedly dominated the qualification round to grab the first two positions, with Kim Jongho and Lee Woo Seok scoring 684 and 682 while the third position went to Indian archer Atanu Das, who scored 680. The top eight archers in the qualification round will enter the competition from the third elimination round.
Roman, who had qualified for the quarterfinals in the event's last edition, was ecstatic after putting his best effort, but he felt he could have done better had he not felt nervous in the beginning.
“Initially I was a bit nervous, so the first three arrows I hit were pretty poor, but the coach made me rectify my mistakes and I returned to my natural performance,” Roman said. “However, I am happy that I scored more than what I had expected and if I can carry this performance to the elimination round, I can hope to reach the quarterfinals.”
“As I finished nearly inside the top ten, I expect that the opponents will be a bit easier in the first three elimination rounds but then, it will be harder because many world class archers are competing here,” said Roman, who is also happy that Bangladesh men's recurve team registered their best ever score of 1954.
“The boys and girls carried their consistency from practice sessions into the competition. Both teams in recurve and compound did well and I expect Roman Sana will play in the quarterfinals. There is also a good chance for Tamimul to do well,” said coach Nisith Das.
In women's compound team event, holders South Korea women's team set a world record after So Chaewon, Choi Bomin and world Champion Song Yun Soo scored a combined 2108 out of a maximum 2160.
The Korean trio's score was 13 points higher than the previous world-best mark of 2095, shot by the USA in Shanghai in 2011.
“It was a bit windy today but that made us competitive,” said top-scorer So Chaewon, who improved her international best score of 709 by 10 points.
“The most crucial factor was our preparation. We practised almost perfectly all year. Our coaches coached us well and I'm very thankful to them,” added So Chaewon.
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