Shakil's shot from the blue

Unheralded Shakil Ahmed broke a two-decade-long gold drought in the pistol event of the South Asian (SA) Games when the 21-year-old boy clinched gold in the 50m pistol event on the opening day of shooting at the Kahilipara Shooting Range in Guwahati yesterday.

The lad from Dumuria, which falls under the Khulna district, is the country's third athlete to win gold in the ongoing regional multi-sport carnival after weightlifter Mabia Akter Simanta and Mahfuza Khatun Shila bagged their gold medals.

Shakil entered the eight-man final round as the seventh shooter along with two teammates, Mahendra Singh (fifth) and Awar Hossain (eighth), but the shooter from Bangladesh Army not only surprised his teammates and officials but also stunned Indian Om Prakash, who went ahead with the first three shots of the finals but since then failed to catch up to Shakil who finally stopped after confirming the gold medal. Shakil scored 187.6 points to go ahead of Prakash, who had to be content with 187.3 points. The bronze medal went to Pakistan's Kalimullah.

Emerging from nowhere, Shakil entered history of the country's shooting as the second shooter to win gold in the pistol event 23 years after Atiqur Rahman bagged his second gold medal in the pistol event in the 1993 Dhaka SA Games.

Shakil has been shooting for the past two years after enrolling in the Bangladesh Army as a solder. He participated in the national meet last year where he won a bronze medal. He maintained his streak in the Asian Air Gun Championship in India last year by winning a silver medal in the youth category.

"I am really happy and I can't explain my joy with even a hundred sentences. It is a good feeling that Bangladesh started the first event of shooting with a gold medal and I brought that gold in my first appearance in the SA Games," was Shakil's immediate reaction.

Shakil, like many others, never thought that he would win the gold medal. However, he aimed to put his best forward.

"I did not think that I would win gold but there was no shortage of effort from me. I had to concentrate a lot before the event and just tried to shoot naturally and success came my way," he said, adding that Bangladesh Army had helped him a lot in coming this far.

Shakil also had a conversation with his mother over phone soon after winning gold and he learnt from his mother that she initially did not believe the news until she saw a picture of Shakil with her own eyes on the TV screen.

Shakil will also take part in his pet event of 10m pistol on Saturday, with expectations suddenly at an all-time high.

Although a gold came unexpectedly from a pistol event, Bangladesh failed to defend their gold medals in either the women's 10m air rifle individual or team events. The women's team had to be content with a bronze medal yesterday, while the men's pistol team won bronze in the 50m pistol event.